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THE BEST DICTIONARY OE 
THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE : 


Stormonth’s 


•COMPLETE, 

UNABRIDGED 


OVER 1200 PACES. 

Dictionar y. Jil 

A Dictionary of the English Language , Pi'onouno - 
ing , Etymological and Explanatory , embracing 
Scientific and other Terms , numerous Familiar 
Terms , and a copious selection of Old English 
Words, by the 

Rev. James Stormonth, 

Author of “Etymological and Pronouncing 
Dictionary of the English Language for 
Schools and Colleges,” Etc. 




lie v. P. H. Phelpf HI. A., Cantab. 


One Vol., 

12mo, 

cloth, gilt. 

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- 2.50 

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3.00 


IN" aw Y ork : 

FRANK F. LOVELL & CO., 142-144 Worth St 


MRS. BOB 



BY 

JOHN STRANGE WINTER 

Author of “ BOOTLES’ BABY,” “ BEAUTIFUL JIM,” Etc., Etc. 



"A . 




NEW YORK 

FRANK F. LOVELL & COMPANY 

142 & 144 Worth Street 


Copyright, 1889, 
By John W. Lovell, 






CONTENTS 


OHAP. 

I. — A Serious Question . . 

II. — A Piece op News 

III. — Mrs. Bob Markham’s Brother 

IV. — Stephen Howard’s Past . 

Y. — Love the Alchtmist 

YI. — Out for a Ramble . 

VII. — A Visit to Matcham ! . . 

VIII. — In Statu Quo .... 

IX. — On the Brink .... 

X. — “We want to get Married” . 

XI. — The Great St. Eye’s Robbery 

XII. — Miss Alice’s Double 

XIII. — Unbidden Visitors . . 

XIV. — Home Again .... 

XV. — A Little Cloud .... 

XVI. — “ Supposing ” 

XVII. — Half Explained — Wholly Puzzled 
XVIII. — Daily Life .... 

XIX. — A Business-Secret 
XX. — A Bundle of Nerves . # 

XXI. — What Warner Heard . . 

XXII.— Prank ! 

XXIII. — The Truth at Last . 

XXIV.— “ Well ? ” .... 

XXV. — A Brave Pront to the World . 
XXVI. — Exile ! 


PAG* 

1 

13 

25 

42 

55 

65 

78 

95 

104 

120 

129 

141 

154 

164 

171 

180 

187 

197 

213 

224 

233 

243 

255 

268 

276 

282 



MRS. BOB 


CHAPTER I. 

A SERIOUS QUESTION. 

“Measure not despatch by the time of sitting, but by the ad- 
vancement of business.” — Bacon. 

After Mrs. Trafford’s niece was married to the 
Honourable Marcus Orford of the Black Horse and 
her daughter to Sir Anthony Staunton of the same 
regiment, she declared to ' everybody that she no 
longer intended to live in Blankhampton. 

There were ill-natured and envious people in the 
Town who remarked that Blankhampton had done 
uncommonly well by Mrs. Trafford, and that for her 
to betake herself out of it as soon as she had secured 
the two best matches of that year was a regular case 
of burning her boats behind her and kicking down 
the ladder by which she had climbed to fame and 
fortune. 

Mrs. Trafford was resolute, however and actually 
before the Stauntons had returned from their honey- 
moon she, with her eldest and only unmarried 
flower, Julia, packed up their boxes and went off to 

1 


2 


MRS. BOB. 


London town for the ostensible purpose of finding 
what Mrs. Trafford, like a good many other people 
who do not wish to set up a large establishment^ 
called a pied-a-terre. 

It was an innocent pilgrimage. They put up at 
the Grand and worked from thence West by South- 
West. They wanted to be nearer the Park than 
Charing Cross, and in fact to be in the best part of 
Mayfair, a part of London in which it is not easy to 
establish a pied-v-terre on reasonable terms. They 
were really very unlucky — they just missed a 
charming little bijou residence over a saddler’s shop 
in South Audley Street, what in prosaic language is 
called an “ upper part,” but, considering the tiny 
rooms, the bad look-out, the narrow passages and 
stupid twisted stairs, it is not very likely that Mrs. 
Trafford would have consented to change her smart 
commodious house in the best part of Blankhampton, 
for which she paid a modest fifty pounds a year, for 
the bijou residence in South Audley Street at a 
yearly rental of two hundred pounds. 

At all events she did nothing of the kind ; after 
thoroughly searching over all the best districts in 
Town, after interviewing innumerable house-agents, 
worrying a greater number of caretakers, visiting 
quite a quantity of flats large and small, and 
generally having an uncommonly good time, Mrs. 
Trafford and Julia went back to Blankhampton and 
took up their quarters again at No. 7 St. Eve’s. 
“Web, I had not quite decided to leave,” Mrs. 
Trafford explained elaborately during the next week 


A SERIOUS QUESTION. 


3 


or two, “ though I had more than half a mind to 
live in London in future as being nearer my young 
people, or at least as being always a likely and con- 
venient centre for all of us. But we did not see 
anything that we liked, and dear Laura and Madge 
begged us so not to leave St. Eve’s till the regiment 
goes, that Julia and I thought we would let the 
question rest for the present. .Besides that,” Mrs. 
Trafford added^ with the little candid laugh that 
hitherto had stood her in such good stead, “ I am 
not a millionaire, but a poor little widow who has 
just had two smart weddings to drain her purse, and 
really^ house rent in London means quite an income 
— two hundred a year for a little hole I could not 
get my piano into.” 

So the question remained in abeyance, and Mrs. 
Trafford and her eldest flower took up the thread of 
their old life once more, and the people who had said 
disagreeable things about burning boats had, of 
course, nothing further to say. 

But although life in Blankhampton is of the 
dullest, and you may go dreaming on from day to 
day until you begin to wonder for what reason you 
were bom and why you go on living, to a woman of 
Mrs. Trafford’s temperament there is always more 
than enough to fill up the day. She had her house, 
as heretofore, all her old society (excepting such as 
she had judiciously weeded out), and a great many 
new friends whose acquaintance she had made after 
or about the time of the two smart marriages 
which had so drained her purse. And in Blank- 

1 * 


4 


MBS. BOB. 


hampton, like a great many other provincial towns, 
the keeping up of society is a very serious matter. 
Almost any afternoon between the hours of three 
and five you may see a dozen old ladies sallying 
forth in all the glory of their best bonnets, holding 
in their pale kid-covered fingers a resplendent card- 
case. If it is a silver one, so much the better, or it 
may be of carved ivory hailing from China or of 
ivory and silver from the far off Indian strand. 
Failing these comes in the useful and highly orna- 
mental mother-o’-pearl which is sometimes made up 
with little squares of shining green substance, some 
kind of shell, I fancy. Ah ! dear, dear, it is all very 
funny ! 

Mrs. Trafford was great on calling, and she was 
also one of those little friendly women who make a 
virtue of calling outside the regulation hours — at 
some houses, that is to say. And also she had, 
besides her house and her acquaintance to keep up, 
a great and serious object in life, an object which 
was she very well knew not to be entered on lightly 
or with frivolity, an object which in plain language 
was to get her remaining flower, Julia, suitably 
settled in life. 

In the case of Mrs. Marcus Orford matters had 
arranged themselves — and Lady Staunton’s marriage 
had undoubtedly come about by reason of the other ; 
but with Julia it was rather different. Julia was no 
longer in her first youth, and she was not pretty, 
neither was she an interesting or particularly ac- 
complished young lady. She sang a little, it is true, 




A SERIOUS QUESTION. 


5 


but, somehow, her singing did not seem to “ catch 
on” with the Blankhampton people, who rather 
pride themselves on their taste for music. Nor was 
Julia Trafford popular in the town ; she had a high- 
pitched somewhat cracked voice and a laugh that 
did not ring true. 

Still Mrs. Trafford did not despair. Julia had in- 
herited all these characteristics from her and t hey 
had not in her case prevented her from making a 
match which was a really brilliant one, and, more- 
over, she had since the two smart marriages, come to 
feel herself quite like a general to whom defeat is an 
unknown quantity. 

In due time the Black Horse left Blankhampton, 
taking Mrs. Trafford’s youngest daughter and her 
niece in its train, but still her object was not yet ac- 
complished and the little woman began to feel that 
she was losing time and that her eldest flower was 
losing ■ ground. She began to feel, in short, that 
something must be done, that she must bring all her 
energies to bear upon the question and, to use a 
sporting term, the event must be pulled off. 

“Now the thing is,” said the little woman to her- 
self, “ how shall I do it and what shall I do ? ” and 
then she cast about in her mind and went over all 
the likely young men that the town contained. 

They were not many, for, somehow, in those sleepy 
old cathedral towns the young men seem to drift 
away into the outer world and very few stay 
behind to carry on the traditions of their forefathers, 
generally those who do stay are the steady-going un- 


6 


MKS. BOB. 


ambitious ones of tbe flock to which they belong, 
who stay in the sphere in which they are born be- 
cause it is easier to do so than to make an effort and 
break the bonds of tradition by which they are 
bound. 

To go into detail, there was first of all the Adonis 
of the town, one Gerard De Lisle — would he do ? 
Mrs. Trafford looked doubtful but finally decided 
that he would do on a pinch. A couple of years 
before I am bound to admit, Mrs. Trafford would, 
vulgarly speaking, have jumped at Mr. Gerard De 
Lisle as a husband for any of her young ladies, and 
I am quite sure that either Julia or Laura would 
with equal alacrity have jumped at him also. But 
during two years a great many changes may come 
to pass, and in Mrs. Trafford’s case they had done 
so. Her beautiful niece Madge and her pretty 
daughter Laura had married as, in Mrs. Trafford’s 
wildest and most ambitious dreams, she had- never 
dared to imagine probable or even possible. 

So with regard to Mr. Gerard De Lisle Mrs. Traf- 
ford had come to consider him from a different stand- 
point, even remembering that he was the Adonis of 
Blankhampton, that his family were one and all 
persons of the most absolutely unblemished charac- 
ter, that his father was a tower of strength among 
the unco’ guid, of the kind who invariably make a 
' special point of calling themselves “ good church- 
people,” of whom there was a large faction in Blank- 
hampton, that his mother was a woman of good 
family — I mean of very superior birth to the original 


A SERIOUS QUESTION. 


7 


De Lisles, who could only boast of a two generations 5 
remove from the trading class — that his sisters were 
a judicious combination of unco’ guidism and tem- 
pered worldliness and contrived to have an uncom- 
monly good time between their adherence to both 
parties, that he had one or two brothers each re- 
markable in some special line, one for cricket, one 
for music, one for following his religion with the 
help of the highest and most complicated forms of 
Bitualism. Added to all this, Gerard De Lisle was 
undeniably the handsomest man in Blankhampton. 

I do not think, seeing him in London, in the Park 
or a theatre, that you would have picked him out as 
being a man of out of the common looks. He was 
tall, he was fairly broad, but like his father he had 
a certain air of carrying a very short tubbish kind 
of body on particularly long and loose-jointed 
spindle-like legs, which somehow always made me 
wonder that the pretty Blankhampton girls were so 
utterly <e gone ” upon him, as they one and all un- 
doubtedly were. For the rest he was rather light in 
colouring without being what you would describe as 
a fair man, had a straight nose, a pair of blueish bad- 
tempered eyes and a tightly compressed mouth 
which precluded the idea of his disposition being a 
genial one. 

Add to all this an extra-superfine manner, a 
manner which took the middle of the pavement and 
paused for an instant at the street corners while the 
quick hard eyes glanced around as if to see what new 
worlds there were for Adonis to conquer, a manner 


8 


MRS. BOB. 


which was always squaring its shoulders and flourish- 
ing its walking-stick and made a little more display 
of its very white and shining linen than was exactly 
pretty, and there you have Mr. Grerard De Lisle, 
whom everybody in Blankhampton called “ Adonis,” 
except the pretty girls, who had such a variety of 
gushing names for him that I will spare their feel- 
ings by not repeating them. 

I am afraid that this description gives you but a 
poor idea of my w Adonis.” Well, I will be a little 
more explicit. It is true that he was handsome and 
as vain as a peacock, yes, I admit it ; but he was not 
a bad sort of fellow by any means. On the contrary, 
he was scrupulously honourable and I know that he 
could be kind — and if I have seen him pay up his 
shilling for a raffle he did not wish to go in for, and 
say with an air of unutterable surprise when his tor- 
mentor asked for his name, <e Mr. De Lisle,” in 
an accent which conveyed clearly that she must 
either be a knave or a fool, I have also seen him 
speak very kindly and without any “ manner ” at all 
to a little woman whom I knew to be in dire trouble, 
have seen him take hold of her arm for a moment 
in a man’s protecting way, and then pat her shoulder 
with a kindly, “ There, there — yes, I understand, I’ll 
let you know directly I find out about it.” Oh yes, 
with all his little vanities Adonis was a good fellow 
: down at the bottom, and in spite of their sancti- 
moniousness, most . people in Blankhampton would 
tztke the word of a De Lisle sooner than of most of 
the townsfolk. 


A SERIOUS QUESTION. 


9 


Besides Adonis there was — well, really, it was 
wonderful how very few young men there were ! 
There was the Keverend Evelyn Gfabrielli, the 
youngest of the minor-canons at the Parish. He 
was rich (or at least certainly well off), he was 
young, he was a good size and fairly good-looking, 
and for little vanities Adonis was not in it with him. 
He had three valuable rings for every finger and 
thumb of his two hands, and with regard to his 
rings he did not hide his light uacbr a bushel. 

But Evelyn Gabrielli was, as Mrs. Trafford knew 
from past experience, no good in a matrimonial 
sense. Indeed he entirely believed in the celibacy 
of the clergy — the Priesthood I believe he called it 
— and was particularly careful to keep at a safe 
distance from the meshes of the matrimonial net. 
Perhaps it was for this reason that he especially at- 
tached himself to Mrs. (Colonel) Browne and, as a 
set-off against his vow of celibacy, very soon became 
the scandal of the town. 

Then there was Mr. Hooper, another minor- 
canon, also in comfortable circumstances and one 
of those intensely aggravating men who always are 
wanting to get married and never do. He was no 
good either. 

Then — well, really, there were the officers 
quartered in the garrison and that was all. Some- 
how, although Mrs. Trafford did not mean to 
neglect the red-coats, she had not much faith in any 
of them being attracted by Julia; so by the time 
she had thoroughly thought out the situation, she 


10 


MRS. BOB. 


had come to the conclusion that if she ever saw 
Julia settled in a home of her own at Blankhamp- 
ton it would most likely be in the large and com- 
modious old house so difficult for a stranger to find, 
because it was tucked away down a narrow archway 
just wide enough to allow a carriage to pass under 
it into the wider space of the court within. 

Of course it would not be a brilliant marriage, 
the little widow told herself, but it would be a nice 
comfortable position for Julia, who would naturally 
be made very much of by the De Lisle family, who 
in spite of their undeniable weight in the town, 
were, of course, at best but professional people and 
as such not by any means the equal of the Traffords, 
more especially since they had become allied to the 
houses of Ceespring and Staunton. 

But not one word did Mrs. TrafFord say on the 
subject to her Julia, she was, in fact, far too skilful 
a tactician to do that. However, one morning at 
breakfast she suggested in a casual sort of way to 
her daughter that Blankhampton seemed very dull 
since Laurie and Madge had gone. 

“ Oh ! awfully dull,” answered Julia, who had as 
I think I have already said, a very high-pitched voice. 

“ Really, I think we had better give a little 
dinner-party,” suggested Mrs. TrafFord, as if the idea 
had but that instant occurred to her — “ What do 
you say ? ” 

“ Yes— or a d&nce,” said Julia, who liked having 
dances in her own house because she was sure of 
having a good number of partners. 


A SERIOUS QUESTION. 


11 


“Oh! I think not a dance, dear,” objected the 
little widow, who did not see spending a lot of 
money just to entertain a crowd of people to whom 
she was entirely indifferent and who would pro- 
bably rather retard than in any way further he** 
schemes. 

“ Why not ? ” exclaimed Julia. 

“Well because Laurie and Madge would both 
think it most unkind to have a dance immediately 
after they have left Blankhampton, and when they 
could none of them possibly come back for it. But 
to have a little dinner-party is quite another thing, 
don’t you see ? ” 

“ Yes, I think you are right, Mother,” Julia re- 
plied — she was really a very sensible person. 
“ Then what people are you thinking of asking ? ” 

“ Why, my dear, I haven’t thought about it at 
all,” Mrs. Trafford said — which, by-the-by, was 
neither more nor less than a story — “ but I think 
we ought to ask the Canon and Mrs. Berkeley — we 
have not asked them since they have been in resi- 
dence. And there are the Lovelaces. 1 don’t care 
much about her — she is so friendly with those very 
unpleasant Mauleverers, but at the same time I 
think we ought to ask them occasionally, it is so 
much more agreeable to be friendly with all one’s 
neighbours, and she is pretty (of a bold kind), and 
wears charming dresses and diamonds.” 

“ Yes, she does. And be sure you ask Captain 
Legard or she will be as glum as an owl all the 
evening,” put in Julia with her little cracked laugh. 


12 


MRS. BOB. 


“Then we will ask Captain Legard,” said Mrs. 
Trafford indulgently. “ Then there are the 
Prescot ts. I think we ought to ask them soon 
— we have been there several times since they were 
here.” 

“ They make six and ourselves eight,” remarked 
Julia — “and Captain Legard nine. You will want 
another man.” 

“ Well — there is Mr. Gerard De Lisle. We might 
ask him.” 

“ Yes — ” Julia was a little doubtful. “ But if 
you do you will have to ask Mina.” 

“ I thought they were all away,” 

“Mina came back yesterday, so you can’t ask 
Gerard without asking her.” 

“No — Well, I don’t know that that would make 
any difference ; we will ask Mr. O’Hagan.” 

“ Yes, he would do. That makes ten, and he will 
take Mina in. I shouldn’t ask any more if I were 
you.” 

“ I don’t think we will. Then Julia, dear, 
will you send out the invitations this morning? ” 

“ Yes — but when will you have it ? ” 

“ When— Oh ! let me see. Let us say Thursday 
week, dear — This is Saturday, so it is quite enough 
notice to give.” 

“ Oh ! yes — Eight o’clock, I suppose ? ” 

“ Yes, dear — Eight o’clock,” returned Mrs, 
Trafford blithely. 


▲ PIECE OP NEWS. 


13 


CHAPTER II. 

A PIECE OF NEWS. 

•* The test of profitable hearing is not the pleasure of the moment, 
but the subsequent result.” — Plutarch. 

In due time Mrs. Trafford’s little dinner — she was 
quite famous in Blankbampton for her little dinners 
— came off. On the appointed evening the house in 
St. Eve’s had put on a gala like aspect — and when 
Mrs. Trafford’s house was wearing its gala-dress, it 
was a circumstance to which you could not shut 
your eyes. There was a charming arrangement in 
lieu of the cosy fire of winter time, which made the 
fire-place and hearth look like a small fernery — an 
arrangement of looking-glass and growing plants, 
trailing Ivy and soft delicate moss, to which Mrs. 
Trafford gave a good deal of personal attention and 
was in consequence greatly envied by her friends, 
even those who were the fortunate possessors of 
large conservatories. 

A few minutes before eight Julia made her ap- 
pearance in the drawing-room, where her Mother 
had been all in readiness for her visitors for some 
little time. 

“Do I look all right, Mother ? ” Julia asked in 


14 


MRS. ROB. 


her loudest company voice, for publicity always 
had that effect upon Miss Trafford, and the larger 
the company the louder became her tones. “ Shall 
I do?” 

“ You look delightful, dear,” returned Mrs. Trafford 
in all sincerity. 

Julia undoubtedly did look nice. Her gown was 
one she had worn during her visit to Town and still 
looked very fresh and pretty. It was rose-pink, was 
of a soft and gauzy material and was of that fashion 
which is highly becoming to little women of spare 
proportions. It was cut sufficiently low in the neck 
to show that her throat was white, and the sleeves 
were puffed and gathered and then were tied or 
seemed to be tied with a profusion of smart ribbons ; 
she wore a great cluster of blush roses on one side 
of her bodice and carried a pink fan of fluffy 
feathers. 

“ Oh ! that is all right,” she said with a gratified 
simper. There was a long strip of looking-glass 
placed between two of the windows and Julia was 
still craning her neck so as to get a side view of her- 
self when the door opened and Cox, the neat parlour- 
maid, announced — “ Captain Legard.” 

Now Captain Legard was a young man in whom 
Julia did not take a great amount of interest ; he 
had not been very long in Blankhampton, and 
ever since the first day that he had come into it 
he had persistently and abjectly worshipped at 
the shrine of Mrs. Lovelace. Therefore Julia, 
after giving him her hand, found she had nothing 


a* 




A PIECE OF NEWS. 


15 


further to say to him and went to the little 
bow window over the entrance, which was the 
favourite outlook of everybody in the house because 
from it you could see from one end to the other of 
St. Eve’s, which was far and away the most interest- 
ing street in Blankhampton. 

In two minutes a cab stopped at the door below 
and a vision of radiant beauty stepped out and dis- 
appeared into the house — the Lovelaces. Julia sat 
down on the velvet cushioned window-seat and 
breathed a sigh of relief that Mrs. Lovelace would 
be able to enter the room without finding her talk- 
ing to or even sitting near her especial adorer. She 
had seen Mrs. Lovelace more than once enter a room, 
just flash her great black eyes round and by a mere 
glance take Captain Legard away from anybody to 
whom he might be talking at the time, and Julia had 
no mind, if she wasn’t as fair to see as Mrs. Lovelace, 
to let her have that kind of triumph at her expense. 

The next moment Mrs. Lovelace came in followed 
by her husband — and oh ! what a vision of loveliness 
she was. I do not know that Mrs. Lovelace without 
the beautiful gown of white and gold brocade which 
she wore, would have been such a vision of loveliness 
as undoubtedly the gown would have been without 
Mrs. Lovelace. There was very little body to it and 
so much train that Julia caught herself wondering 
whether the skirt had not been made before the 
bodice and the dressmaker had fallen short of stuff. 
She wore some beautiful diamonds and a great ruby 
snake upon one arm and without doubt pretty 


16 


ms. BOB. 


woman and gown together made a beautiful pic- 
ture. 

She was rather a slender figure, and fairly grace- 
ful, but it was her face that attracted you most, it 
was such a bold little wilful face, with a pert up- 
turned nose and a warm, dark, almost swarthy com- 
plexion out of wdiich her black eyes blazed like a 
pair of live coals. Yes, undoubtedly Mrs. Lovelace 
was a pretty woman. 

And her husband ? Well, he was a somewhat 
colourless person, good-looking and particularly 
patient in disposition, else he would never have put 
up with so strong a flavouring of Legard in his daily 
dish. 

Then the door opened again and Cox announced, 
“ Mr. O’Hagan ! ” and then walked into the room, 
or I should say shot into it a tall and handsome 
man, all blushes and confusion, although judging 
from his appearance he had need for neither. 

<f How do you do Mrs. Trafford — I hope I’m not 
very late ? ” he asked breathlessly. 

“ Oh ! no, you are not nearly the last, Mr. 
O’Hagan,” she answered kindly, and then Mr. 
O’Hagan feverishly got through his greetings to the 
rest of the company. 

It seemed such an ordeal to the poor fellow, who 
had literally an impediment in his speech, not a 
stammer or a stutter or a splutter but an actual 
catch in his jaw as if the muscles wanted oiling, 
and this combined with extreme sensitiveness and 
nervousness made on-lookers wonder why he ever 


A PIECE OF NEWS. 


17 


distressed himself by going to dinners or any other 
kind of parties at all. 

Next to come were Canon and Mrs. Berkeley. 
Now Canon Berkeley was just then first favourite 
with the great spiritual lord of the diocese, John, 
by Divine right, Lord Bishop of Blankhampton. To 
anyone who knows Blankhampton this is almost a 
sufficient description, but I suppose I must add a 
little more for the benefit of those of my readers 
whose acquaintance with the ancient city is, as yet, a 
slight one. 

He was, besides being a Canon Residentiary of the 
Cathedral, the Rector of one of the best livings in 
the diocese, and besides these two substantial charges 
he held various other offices, those of rural dean, of 
examining-chaplain to his lordship and so on, and 
from one end to the other of the diocese he was 
looked upon as the next man upon whom the archi- 
diaconal mantle would fall, unless indeed anything 
should happen to the gerat John, for whom there 
were possibilities of translation in several directions, 
or to be accurate in two — one in this world and one 
in the next. 

Every one wondered why honours should thus 
have fallen thick and fast upon Canon Berkeley. He 
was a particularly poor stick as a preacher, being 
neither learned nor eloquent, and I must say at this 
point, that although I have never liked the great 
John of Blaiikhampton, he certainly ought to have 
known a good preacher when he heard one, for there 
was no fault to be found with his own discourses, 

2 


18 


MRS. ROB. 


which were both powerful and well-delivered, always 
taking exception to his addresses to children, which 
invariably gave one the idea of an elephant trying to 
play spillikins. 

Canon Berkeley was not a popular man in Blank- 
shire, more I fancy because he had an unpopular 
manner than from any other cause ! I may be wrong 
but it seems to me that a parson and a doctor, more 
than any other class of men that you can name, 
ought first and foremost of their qualifications to 
possess a certain charm of manner. I believe if a 
scheme could be organised by which relays of the 
Clergy could be sent to a sort of Staff-College in 
London (or would not the grand new Clergy House 
that we have heard so much about lately answer the 
purpose ?) and take lessons in manner from say a 
score of the greatest medical specialists of the day, 
that on the whole the influence of the Church would 
be about a million times as great as it is. 

For the sake of example and for their own inesti- 
mable benefit, we would begin with the entire bench 
of bishops — stay though, I am getting along too fast 
for there is one spiritual lord among them now who 
has delightful manners. I do not care to name him 
because I might thus offend all the rest, but I may 
most emphatically say that he is not that bishop of 
whom they say he looks like the devil and has the 
voice of an angel ; that gentleman is a sort of Jekyll 
and Hyde, all urbanity and the most courtly suavity 
one day, the next a lump of sullenness, who will go 
to a country confirmation, and at the house where iio 


A PIECE OE NEWS. 


19 


is entertained, sit speechless and mannerless at the 
feast given in his honour and glumly put out of 
sight the whole of a rich and extravagant dish of 
stewed sweetbreads or cream, and then go off to 
bed with a curt “ good-night ” and be taken very ill 
before morning and throw the entire household into 
an uproar. No, I do not mean that gentleman, nor 
do I think he could be let off a severe course at the 
new “ Clerical Staff-College.” 

After the bishops we might give special attention 
to the clergy of the Metropolis and particularly to 
those in the suburbs, whose manners are atrocious. 
Then we would gradually work downwards through 
the different ranks until we had put the requisite 
polish upon the very last ordained deacons. 

Without joking, I really think I have hit upon 
the grandest scheme that has been mooted for at 
least fifty years ! 

In person Canon Berkeley was exactly like a 
hired coachman, I mean the sort of coachman that 
you get in London with a turn-out from the job- 
master’s ; he was tall and ill-proportioned, and his 
gaitered legs showed off his flat splayed feet to their 
worst advantage — not that he wore gaiters that 
evening for his substantial legs were clad in silken 
hose ! He was sloping in the shoulder and narrow 
in the chest and wore the badly-grown beard, scanty 
and patchy, which is so much affected by a certain 
class of successful clergymen ! With all this he had 
a somewhat oily and sycophantish manner, intended 
to be a very courtly one ! 


2 * 


20 


MRS. ROB 


His wife was a dowdy and had little or nothing to 
say for herself, the sort of woman who, taken on her 
own merits, would inevitably have slipped into com- 
plete obscurity, and on whom the little air of dignity 
which most clergymen’s wives assume, sooner or 
later, sat very oddly, like a diamond necklace on a 
cotton frock. She wore a brown brocaded gown, of 
very modest cut, only a small V indicating that it 
was not her Sunday church-going frock. The only 
marks of worldliness about it were arrangements 
(now obsolete) of white lace about the wrists and 
along the V of the neck, and seriously if Mrs. 
Berkeley looked somewhat old-fashioned, her gown 
was in itself a sermon against such apparel — or want 
of it — as served to display Mrs. Lovelace’s arms and 
shoulders. 

There were now only two more guests to come — 
Mr. Gerard De Lisle and his sister Mina — and* 
during the interval of waiting, Mrs. Trafford worked 
her w T ay round to Major Lovelace and whispered to 
him that he would kindly sit at the end of the 
table and take Mrs. Berkeley in to dinner. Then 
she passed on to Captain Legard and intimated 
to him that Mrs. Lovelace was his portion, 
and to Mr. O’Hagan that his lady had not yet 
come. 

Then Cox appeared again and the De Lisles 
came in. 

It was odd to see with what a different air the 
brother and sister entered the room ! Mina was fair 
and very tall, with shapeless features and a dimple 


t 


A PIECE OF NEWS. 


21 


that gave her an infinite amount of trouble. She 
had a pale complexion and nice gray eyes, with 
thick black brows which met in the middle and 
gave her the appearance of having but one. She 
was rather slight as well as tall and had a waist 
just eighteen inches in circumference. Her waist 
was so short and her legs so long that in order 
to avoid gawkiness she had been trained to take 
very short steps, so she minced into the room 
looking up from under her black eye-brow in 
a juvenile girlish sort of way (Mina was thirty, 
all the same) and with her mouth set in the 
sort of fixed smile best calculated to show off that 
dimple. 

Then came Gerard, with such a marvellous ex- 
panse of shirt-front that his legs almost tottered 
under it and seemed to sprawl about in all direc- 
tions in the effort to keep their footing. He had 
a nice white collar and a little black tie, and shiny 
little sharp-pointed shoes tied with bows of black 
ribbon. And likewise he had a liberal amount of 
manner on, the manner which had made him 
neither more nor less than the darling of half the 
women’s hearts in the town. 

Two minutes after the last arrivals, Cox an- 
nounced that dinner was served, and Major Love- 
lace gave his arm to Mrs. Berkeley and led the way 
to the dining-room. And when in their turn Julia 
and ‘Mr. De Lisle found their places, Gerard dis- 
covered that he was placed between Julia and his 
own sister. So also did Mrs, Trafford (who, by-the- 


22 


MBS. BOB. 


bye, bad carefully arranged the table herself that 
afternoon). 

“ Oh, my dear Mr. De Lisle,” she said, “ this is 
dreadful — you cannot sit next to your own sister — 
it is worse than a husband and wife finding them- 
selves together.” 

“Pray don’t trouble to make any change, Mrs. 
Trafford,” said he promptly. “I can keep my 
sister in order and see that she behaves properly,” 
at which everybody laughed and the table remained 
as it was. 

Clever little Mrs. Trafford ! For the natural con- 
sequence of her “ mistake ” was that Mr. De Lisle 
confined all his attentions to Miss Julia and left his 
sister to be kind and encouraging to Mr. O’Hagan. 
Consequently Julia had a very good time and showed 
to her best advantage, and before the ladies left the 
table she had heard a great piece of news from 
Gerard. 

“ You know the Manor Lodge, don’t you, Miss 
Trafford,” he said. 

“ The Manor Lodge,” she repeated. “ No, I don’t 
think I do. Who lives there ? ” 

“ Well, nobody has lived there for a long time, 
never since I can remember,” he answered. 

“ Oh, the old house on the Appleton-road — yes, I 
know. What of it ? ” 

“ It is let — or rather sold.” 

“ You don’t say so. And who has bought it ? ” 

A Mr. Markham, an Australian. He is going to 
spend a lot of money over it and means to live 


A PIECE OF NEWS. 


23 


there as soon as it can be got ready. Meantime, 
he has taken Brentwood Hall for six months.” 

“ Beally, you don’t say so. Are they nice people, 
do you think ? ” 

“ Yes, I think so. His [wife is a very pretty 
gentle lady-like kind of woman and they both seem 
uncommonly keen on hunting. They are going to 
fit the stables up in superb style.” 

“ And have they already come to Brentwood ? ” 

“ I think not. They come next week, I believe.” 

“ I wonder what made them think of coming to 
Blankhampton,” said Julia wonderingly. e< They 
must have been very much charmed with the Manor 
Lodge to take so much trouble over it. There 
must be plenty of houses to be had in good hunting 
centres which would be ready for them to walk 
right into.” 

“ Yes, but Mrs. Markham took a fancy to this 
place, the moment she saw it she turned round to 
him and said ‘ Bob ! I must have this place at any 
price.’ ” 

“ And were you there ? ” asked Julia, who was 
astounded to hear of the great Adonis having per- 
sonally to do with so common a matter as house- 
showing.” 

“I? Oh, no. But we have all Mr. Bellairs’ 
affairs in our hands and one of our young clerks 
went over the place with them. I — oh, no ! Well 
— I saw them when they came to talk over terms 
and that sort of thing.” 

“ I see. Well, I suppose,” said Julia, M that every- 


24 


MRS. BOB. 


body will be very glad to have the Manor Lodge 
occupied again. I don’t know that it will make 
much difference to us, for my mother is always 
talking about leaving Blankhampton and settling 
in Town. So one of these days, I daresay we 
shall take flight and her threatenings will become 
reality.” 

“ In that case Blankhampton will miss you dread- 
fully,” said Mr. De Lisle gallantly. 

“Really ! Ah, I don’t know. We are but out- 
casts here, Mr. De Lisle, strangers and pilgrims, 
you know. Now if the De Lisles were to betake 
themselves away it woukl be looked upon in the 
light of a public calamity, for you have been 
here for hundreds and hundreds of years, haven’t 
you?” 

“ We have been a long time in the place, it is 
true,” answered he, who did not feel inclined to tell 
her that his great grandfather was the first of his 
name who had part or lot in the old city and that 
he, as a matter of fact, had come straight from his 
native farm to be apprenticed to a Blankhampton 
tradesman ! 

Ah ! dear, dear, it is at times very convenient to 
be what Julia described as “ outcasts,” “ strangers, 
and pilgrims ” and so on — it enables you to talk 
about “ my people ” in a way that does not sound 
pretty when you have been mixed up with a place 
for three or four generations and everybody knows 
exactly who and what “ my people ” are. 

“You seemed,” said Mrs. Trafford to Julia, when 



MRS. BOB MARKHAM’S BROTHER. 25 

the company had gone, sc to get on very well to- 
night with Mr. De Lisle.” 

“ Oh, yes, pretty well,” answered Julia. “ But all 
the same I don’t care much about him, he does 
fancy himself so enormously. By-the-by, did any- 
body tell you about the Manor Lodge ? ” 

“ No, not a word ; what about it ? ” Mrs. Trafford 
answered. 

And then Julia repeated all the information that 
Gerard De Lisle had given her about Mr. and Mrs. 
“ Bob ” Markham and what they meant to do with 
the long uninhabited Manor Lodge. 


CHAPTER III. 

MRS. BOB MARKHAM’S BROTHER. 

Love he comes and love he tarries 
Just as fate or fancy carries, 

Longest stays when sorest chidden, 

Laughs and flies when pressed and bidden. 

— Campbell. 

Before long the news that the Manor Lodge had 
been bought by a rich Australian and was already 
in the hands of workmen who would put it into 
thorough repair, spread over Blankhamplon and 
everybody was agog with curiosity and excite- 
ment. 

I don’t think that so much interest would have 
been taken in Mr. and Mrs. Markham if they had 
taken any other house than the Manor Lodge. But 


26 


MBS. BOB. 


the Manor Lodge was interesting enough in itself to 
shed a halo of romance over anyone connected with 
it, and the fact that these Australians had bought it 
and were actually going to live in it, was enough to 
make all the neighbourhood eager to make their ac- 
quaintance. 

The Manor Lodge stood about a mile from the 
city on the left bank of the river vrhich runs through 
its midst. It was a large house standing two storeys 
high,* built of white brick and having very wide 
eaves. The lower windows were all French case- 
ments and were shaded by wide verandas, over which 
there climbed in wild and untended profusion roses 
and honey-suckle, ivy and wisteria. 

The gardens had once been beautiful, with wide 
pathways, a terrace overlooking the small park, a 
fountain and several marble statues standing here 
and there. There were two conservatories built 
against the house and two large vineries, which had 
been kept in fair order by an old gardener who had 
been put into the place as a caretaker by way of 
giving him an easy berth. This old man had after 
his first week or so given up trying to do the work 
of three active men and so keep the garden in order, 
and had quietly slipped into troubling himself about 
nothing but the grapes and peaches of which Mr 
Bellairs expected an occasional basket to be sent for 
his table. 

But very soon under the Markham rule,” the 
whole place began to assume a different appearance 
—the roof3 and chimneys were thoroughly over- 


MRS. BOB MARKHAM’S BROTHER. 27 

hauled, the old windows were mended with new 
ones, the white walls were cleaned down, the veran- 
das repaired, and the various creepers were in the 
hands of a skilled gardener soon reduced to order 
and neatness. The fountain was cleaned out and 
set playing again and one morning Mrs. Markham 
brought a big bowl in which were eight or ten gold 
fish which she turned into the fountain in the large 
conservatory, watching their movements with the 
curiosity of a child. 

The very statues were cleaned of the green moss 
and growth which is the outcome of ages of neglect 
and now they shone forth once more in all their 
beauty, once more Venus and Apollo enjoyed the 
beauty of comparatively smooth lawns and well- 
clipped hedges and quaintly shaped yew-trees, though 
not so smooth or trim as they would be after a year 
or two of the new order. 

More than once Mrs. Trafford and Julia happened 
to pass by the Manor Lodge and saw all the signs of 
life and wealth about the place. “ I think we will 
go and call on Mrs. Markham next week, Julia,” Mrs. 
Trafford remarked. 

They could not from the road see a sign of the 
house for the avenue made a wide curve from the 
gate and was lined on either side by a dense hedge 
of Portuguese laurel ; but they had good and sub- 
stantial evidence of the way in which the place was 
being fitted up for a large covered cart with open 
ends passed through the gates just as they reached 
them and this cart was filled to overflowing with a 


28 


MRS. BOB. 


variety of tall palms, aloes, cacti and tree-ferns. “ I 
think we will call next week, Julia,” said Mrs. 
Trafford as they walked on towards the town. 

So the following week Mrs. Trafford and Julia 
took an open fly and went to Brentwood, the pretty 
house, half villa, half mansion, which the Markham’s 
had taken until the Manor Lodge should be ready 
for them. Yes, Mrs. Markham was at home and 
they were shown in to the pretty drawing-room 
where, in spite of its being as yet but early autumn, 
a bright fire was burning in the polished grate. 

As the door closed behind the powdered footman, 
Mrs. Trafford looked at her daughter and raised her 
eye-brows ; they both knew Brentwood for the Marcus 
Orfords had lived there from the time they were 
married until the Black Horse had left Blankhamp- 
ton, and they therefore knew to a nicety what the 
natural condition of the house was. Between our- 
selves it was very different to that in which they 
now found it. 

In two minutes Mrs. Markham came in, a pretty 
elegant Woman wearing a simple tea-gown of dark 
blue silk, a thing that had cost a deal of money 
and yet was not too fine for ordinary use. “I 
am so glad to see you,” she cried, holding out 
both her hands to Mrs. Trafford, c< the more so 
because we brought a letter of introduction to 
you and were waiting till we got a little more 
settled to send it to you. It is so kind of you to 
have come so soon.” 

Mrs. Trafford was enchanted with her new friend 


MRS. BOB MARKHAM’S BROTHER. 29 

— “ That is very nice to have mutual friends — may I 
ask who ? ” 

“ Oh, yes — it was Colonel Clarke — you know 
Colonel Clarke, at least he knows you. He said he 
was an old friend of yours.” 

“ Yes,” said Mrs. Trafford doubtfully. She did 
not happen to remember a Colonel Clarke and she 
did not like to say so. 

“ Stay though,” Mrs. Markham went on in her soft 
sweet voice, “ I believe I am wrong, it was Coles— 
Colonel Coles. How stupid of me to mistake. I get 
so mixed among names. I don’t often forget a voice 
or a face, but the names do bother me terribly some- 
times.” 

“ Oh, Colonel Coles. Yes, he was a great friend of 
ours. So you know him. Is he not a charming old 
man ? ” 

“ Yes, very charming. Bob and I are equally 
fond of him,” Mrs. Markham replied. “ Of course, 
we really don’t know many people in England, for I 
was born in Australia and never left it until less 
than a year ago. It seems such a big w r orld when 
you leave your own corner and travel over the parts 
of it that you don’t know, but really it is only a 
little world after all, for when we left Australia, my 
husband insisted on stopping at Calcutta and going 
overland to Bombay, because he wanted to see 
something of India. Whilst we were up-country, 
and you may believe we were not long there, we 
met Colonel Coles. He was dining with us one 
evening and we were talking of our plans and he 


so 


MRS. BOB. 


said that he would give us a letter to a Mrs. Trafford 
whom we ought to know if there was the remotest 
chance of our pitching our tent anywhere near 
Blankhampton. Of course, we accepted it gladly 
although we had then no more intention of settling 
at Blankhampton than at any other place, and then 
after all oddly enough here we are.” 

“ And here we are, more oddly still,” cried Mrs. 
Trafford gaily. 

In half an hour they were quite in the position of 
old friends, and at last Mrs. Trafford and Julia 
looked at one another as a sort of signal that it was 
time for them to go. 

44 No, don’t look at your daughter in that way,” 
said Mrs. Markham smiling, 44 because I hear the 
tea coming and also I saw Bob and my brother pass 
the window a moment ago. You really must not go 
till you have seen them.” 

Nothing loth Mrs. Trafford let herself slip back 
on to her settee again and Julia put her pretty skirts 
into the prettiest folds possible. Then the door was 
opened and the powdered footman entered carrying 
a nice little bamboo table, followed by a counter- 
part of himself carrying a large brass tea-tray. 

It was an exquisite tea-tray, no, I mean that it 
was an exquisitely served tea. There was a little 
brass kettle and lamp matching the tray exactly — a 
neat little Queen Anne tea-pot, sugar-basin and 
cream-jug and pretty modern Derby cups and 
saucers. Everything was neat and bright and 
without the smallest attempt at show or ostentation. 


MRS. BOB MARKHAM’S BROTHER. 31 

“ Tell your master,” said Mrs. Markham in a low 
voice to the first powdered person. 

Eeally Mrs. Trafford quite enjoyed that footman, 
for he was a person of delightful manners, just mur- 
muring a reply and bending his head a little, then 
getting gently out of the room with a sort of glide 
— oh ! without doubt, admirable as the good Cox 
was, Mrs. Trafford would have thoroughly enjoyed 
the luxury of a really well-trained footman. 

“ In two minutes Mr. Markham came in. “ Bob,” 
said his wife, “ this is Mrs. Trafford to whom Colonel 
Coles gave us a letter of introduction, and Miss 
Trafford.” 

Mr. Markham went across the room to Mrs. 
Trafford and held out his hand. “ I’m a plain 
Colonial, Mrs. Trafford,” he said, “ but if I am any- 
thing I am hearty. And I am glad to see you, real 
glad. It is exceedingly kind of you to come and see 
us before we had time to present our letter of 
introduction. But perhaps the Colonel wrote to you?” 

“No,” said Mrs. Trafford, with quite her own 
little airy laugh, 6( we [came because we heard that 
you were charming people, and because we always 
like to be on good terms with our neighbours,” 

“ I am very proud to bid you welcome here,” 
said Mr. Markham, “ although it is not my own 
house. I shall be more happy when I can welcome 
you there.” 

He had quite a delightfully old-fashioned air of 
chivalrous courtesy, and Mrs. Trafford was greatly 
pleased with him. He waited on her most atten- 


32 


MRS. BOB. 


tively and put the sugar in her tea with as much 
care as he might have done if she had been a queen, 
balking hard all the time, 

“ Yes. I am a Colonist,” he remarked, “ that is 
not an Australian, you know. No, my wife is an 
Australian and my brother-in-law. Australians 
think themselves much greater swells than mere 
Colonists — at least my wife does, I know.” 

Mrs. Markham laughed. “ How silly you are, 
Bob,” she said good-naturedly. “ Where is 
Stephen ? I thought I saw him with you just now.” 

“ So you did, my dear. He is coming in a 
minute. Yes, here he is.” 

In another moment Mrs. Markham’s brother, the 
“ Stephen ” of whom she had spoken, came in. 

“Let me introduce my brother, Mr. Howard,” 
said Mrs. Markham. 

Mr. Howard went and shook hands with Mrs 
Trafford and then with her daughter. “Stevie,” 
said Mrs. Markham, “ Miss Trafford has no tea.” 

“ Oh ! I’m so awfully sorry not to have noticed 
it before,” he said in the real Australian voice, 
slow and pleasant. “Is that for Miss Trafford, 
Maimie ? ” as his sister poured out another cup of 
tea. 

“ Yes,” said the lady, and then Stephen Howard 
carried it carefully across to Julia, and then went 
back for the cream and the sugar and the cake- 
dish, a pretty affair with three compartments in 
which were respectively bread and butter, cake and 
fine purple grapes. 


MRS. BOB MARKHAM’S BROTHER. 33 

“ My sister always has fruit with every meal,” 
he said. “I believe it isn’t the right thing in 
England — but we, you know, are savages and may 
indulge our whims.” 

“ Very delightful whims,” said Julia helping her- 
self to grapes and bread and butter. 

Mr. Howard fetched his own cup and sat down 
close beside her. “ How good of you to say that,” 
he said. “ So many people dislike everything that 
is not quite customary and make no pretence of 
hiding their dislike.” 

“ Only disagreeable people,” said Julia, stirring 
her tea. “I assure you, Mr. Howard, there are 
plenty of pleasant people -in England, in Blank- 
hampton for that matter. By-the-bye, have you 
made any acquaintances here yet ? ” 

(i Yes, a few. Mr. and Miss de Lisle were here 
yesterday.” 

“ Oh ! yes.” Julia’s tone was a little frozen, for 
but three days before Mina de Lisle had professed 
herself very doubtful if her mother meant to call 
upon the new-comers or not. “ Meant to have the 
first chance,” ran Julia’s thoughts, as she looked at 
the handsome young man beside her. 

“ You live in the town, Miss Trafford,” he said 
looking up quickly so that their eyes met. 

“ Yes,” she answered — then suddenly asked, 
“ How did you know that we lived in the town ? ” 

“ Because I saw you in a shop the other day and 
I asked who you were.” 

Julia’s eyes fell and her colour rose. “ Really,” 

3 


34 


MRS. BOB. 


she murmured, then laughed a little. “ Yes — 
and ” 

“ And the people told me where you lived and — 

and ” he broke off short there and stretched 

out his hand for the three-sided dish. “ Have some 
more grapes, Miss Trafford,” he said in quite a 
' different voice. 

Now Miss Trafford was a young lady who was 
singularly like her astute mother in several respects, 
one of which was that under very few circumstances 
did she forget the advantage of keeping an eye to 
the main chance. In this instance she helped 
herself to grapes and then looked up at him again. 
“ What were you going- to say and why didn’t you 
say it ? ” she demanded. 

Mr. Stephen Howard looked a little confused. 
“Oh,” he said at last, not looking at her but 
confining his attention to the fruit on his plate 
— “ Oh I because you would think me such an 
ass.” 

“ An ass — well, so I might,” said she coolly. 
“ But then I might think you a much greater one 
if you leave me in the dark, you know.” 

“Well” — still he hesitated a little — “I went 
round to have a look at your house.” 

Julia stared at him in unqualified amazement. 
“ You went to have a look at our house, Mr. Howard! 
But why ? ” 

“ Because I wanted to see what kind of a house 
you lived in,” he said with a charming doggedness 
as if, having begun a confession he meant to go 


MRS. BOB MARKHAM’S BROTHER. 


35 


through with it and was not to be laughed out of 
the position which he had taken up. 

And Julia sat and looked at him with all her 
wondering amazement plainly depicted in her eyes 
and on her blank face — then somehow, the fire in his 
handsome blue eyes communicated itself to her and 
she turned a sudden rich crimson colour which 
spread all over her face and for the moment made 
her look really pretty. 

“ What an extraordinary idea,” she murmured 
confusedly. 

“Yes. I know it was an awful piece of imper- 
tinence,” said he coaxingly, “but don’t be angry at 
it, Miss Traffbrd. I’m only a savage you know.” 

“ A very well educated savage,” she rejoined, 
“ especially in the art of flattery.” 

“ I did not mean it for flattery,” he said quietly. 

An electric thrill shot through Julia’s not very 
susceptible heart, and as at that moment he had 
to get up in answer to a summons from his sister, 
she had an opportunity of looking at him more 
closely. It was all so very unusual and extra- 
ordinary that she was too astonished almost to think. 
What did it mean ? What could it mean ? Here 
was this handsome young man looking into her 
eyes the very first time they had ever met, making 
her feel as she had never known what it was to feel 
in all her life before, saying that he had seen her, 
asked who she was, and had actually gone to her 
house to see what kind of a place she lived in — it 
was incredible ! 


3 # 


36 


MRS. BOB. 


In the ease of Marcus Orford and her cousin 
Madge, circumstances had been at first pretty 
much the same, and in their case, when explana- 
tions came about, it had all seemed natural 
enough, but to have the same romance come into 
her life and come so unexpectedly — well, it was 
incredible. 

He was a very handsome young man, fair as a 
child, with long limbs, serene blue eyes and regular 
features. He had charming manners too, a smooth 
soft voice and a very winning smile. And could it 
be possible that this ! all this — oh ! no, no. She 
was, she must be, dreaming. 

Yet when he came back again to his chair, it did 
not seem like it. It is true that he did not try to 
take the conversation up exactly where they had 
left it off ; but he told her how he detested Australia, 
that he never meant to go back there as long as he 
lived, that to his mind there was no place in all the 
world so good to live in as England, with a decent 
house in Town and a roomy lodge in a good hunting 
district. 

“ And you are very fond of hunting,” said Julia, 
still struggling with the idea that she was in a fair 
way to making an utter fool of herself. 

“ Oh ! yes. I am excessively fond of it, 
passionately so,” he answered. 

“ And you think you will like this district ? ” 

“ Yes. I think so. But my idea is to put up 
here for the winter and try a season here and there. 
But, of course that wouldn’t do if one was married* 


MRS. BOB MARKHAM’S BROTHER. 37 

'It is best to have a settled home then — at least I 
think so.” 

“ You would have the house in Town,” suggested 
Julia. 

“ And could take a furnished house wherever one 
liked for the hunting,” he added. “Well, yes, but 
unless I married a woman who was desperately keen 
on hunting herself, I shouldn’t feel comfortable to 
drag her about the country in a perpetual state of 
make-shift. However, time will show all that and I 
have to win my wife before I need plan out which is 
the best thing to do for her.” 

Meantime Mrs. Markham was talking about her 
brother to Mrs. Trafford. “ He is such a dear boy, 
she was saying, “ so kind and so thoughtful, really 
sometimes I think that no woman was ever so 
utterly blessed with husband and brother as I am.” 

“ And he lives with you ? ” said Mrs. Trafford, 
stealing an interested glance at the handsome 
young man who was evidently engrossed with 
Julia. 

“ Ah ! well, I can hardly say that,” Mrs. Markham 
answered. “At least we have never arranged or 
said that he should live with us, but practically he 
does — anyway he is always here.” 

“ And he came to England with you ? ” 

“ Oh ! no — he has been a year in England — doing 
London,” said Mrs. Markham with an expressive look. 
“ But as soon as we got into this house, he turned up 
and says he means to stop for the present.” 

At this point Mr. Markham went over to talk to 


38 


MRS BOB. 


Julia and Mr. Howard rose and came to Mrs. Trafford 
and his sister. i( What are you telling Mrs. Trafford 
about me, Maimie ? ” he said, as he sat down near to 
them. 

“ My dear boy,” said his sister, “ I was telling Mrs. 
Trafford what a horrid nuisance you are to Bob and 
me, and begging her to help me to get you married 
and then we should have our house to ourselves.” 

She laughed as she spoke and Mrs. Trafford joined 
in the laugh as if it was the newest and most original 
joke in the world. 

Mr. Howard, however, did not seem to see any 
joke at all but turned his blue eyes upon his sister 
very gravely. “ There is many a true word spoken 
in jest, my dear,” he said quietly, “ and as you have 
invoked Mrs. Trafford’s good offices, I hope you gave 
me a respectable character, apart from the fact of my 
being a nuisance to you and Bob.” 

“ The best of characters, Mr. Howard,” said Mrs. 
Trafford smiling. 

The little woman got up then and declared that 
they really must be going — they had stayed quite an 
unconscionable time, had made, in fact, quite a 
visitation, and although they had promised them- 
selves to make at least half a dozen calls that after- 
noon they would not be able to make more than one 
now. 

“ It is delightful for us that you have not managed 
to go to all the others,” said Mrs. Markham. 

“ Cannot we persuade you to leave the other one 
also ? ” suggested her husband. 


I 


MBS. BOB MARKHAM’S BROTHER. 3& 

•‘No, really we ought to go now,” said Mrs. 
Trafford gaily. “ But if you go in to the Parish on 
Sunday, won’t you come and see us when you leave ? 
We are always at home on Sundays from five to 
seven — do come.” 

“ Oh ! yes, with pleasure,” said Mrs, Markham and 
as if she meant it. 

They said good-bye then and Mr. Howard went 
out to the door with them, which they reached just 
as a carriage drew up at the steps. There was a very 
smart lady inside it, a lady beautifully dressed and 
fair to look upon, who waved a dainty hand to Mrs. 
Trafford and expressed much pleasure at seeing her. 
“ How unfortunate that I should be just coming as 
you are going,” she cried. 

“ Dear Lady Lucifer,” said Mrs. Trafford tenderly, 
•• it is a pity — but really we have made such a visita- 
tion that ” 

“ Oh ! Mrs. Trafford, do go back again. My sister 
will be enchanted,” put in Mr. Howard. 

But Mrs. Trafford was firm — judicious little 
woman! “No, no, Mr. Howard, I won’t begin by 
pa}dng your sister such a poor compliment as that. 
No. I really must go now. If you come in to the 
Parish on Sunday, do come in and have a cup of tea,” 
she added to Lady Lucifer. 

“ Yes, I will, thanks,” Lady Lucifer answered. “ I 
shall have some people with me, but you won’t mind 
I know.” 

“ I shall be charmed,” said Mrs. Trafford. 

Lady Lucifer betook herself and her smart 


40 


MRS. BOB. 


garments into the house then and Mr. Howard 
handed the ladies into their fly. 

“ You will come in on Sunday then ? ” said Mrs. 
Trafford as he shut the door. 

Stephen Howard leaned his arms on the side of the 
cab and looked coolly at Mrs. Trafford with his lazy 
blue eyes. “ It’s a long time to Sunday, Mrs. 
Trafford,” he remarked. 

Mrs. Trafford laughed and Julia turned scarlet. 
Howard’s lazy blue eyes turned to her face for a 
moment, then turned back to Mrs. Trafford’s again. 

“It is only four days,” she answered, “ but if you 
like to come before that, why do so. We shall be 
very glad to see you.” 

“ Will you ? ” he asked, with a shade more eager- 
ness in his tone and a shade less laziness in his eyes. 
“ May I come to-morrow ? ” 

Again he stole a glance at Julia. Julia looked the 
other way. 

“ Yes, „ you may come to-morrow,” said Mrs. 
Trafford with her own little indulgent air. 

“ Thank you — I will,” said Mr. Howard gratefully. 

He stepped back from the side of the cab then 
and made a sign to the driver to go on — and he stood 
bare-headed on the steps with the afternoon sun 
playing peep-bo among his thick golden curls — a 
truly personable young man, with charming manners. 

“What a handsome fellow, Julie,” said Mrs. 
Trafford. 

“Yes,” said Julia, who was in too much of a 
tumult mentally to be able to talk much. 


MRS. BOB MARKHAM’S BROTHER. 


41 


i( Charming manners too,” Mrs. Trafford went on. 

“ Yes,” said Julia. 

£e But these new countries are rapid, very rapid,” 
said Mrs. Trafford, thoughtfully. 

“ Yes,” said Julia finding her voice at last. “ But 
I daresay it is all manner and probably he is saying 
just the same to Lady Lucifer now.” 

“ It seemed to mo he was a little cavalier to Lady 
Lucifer,” said Mrs. Trafford quietly. “ And I think 
she noticed it too.” 

“ Then she will try all the harder to bring him to 
her feet that she may make him suffer for it,” re- 
joined Julia, rather acidly. 

“ Oh ! that is very likely,” said Mrs. Trafford ; 
“ these young married women who marry men so 
much older than themselves seem as if their greed 
for admiration is never satisfied. It is a pitiable 
thing to live for.” 

“But pleasant enough when you can get it,” 
laughed Julia. Mrs. Trafford gave vent to her 
feelings by a little sigh. It was a very small and 
feeble sigh, smothered at its birth and smuggled 
away under the disguise of a yawn. Oh ! if only 
Julia were not so — so inclined to be tart, to take a 
caustic view of every side of life, Mrs. Trafford felt 
sure that with a little tact and management this 
handsome and agreeable young man might be 
brought into the fold of matrimony and her anxiety 
about her one remaining flower would be at an enfl 
and she would be free, gay little widow woman that 
sne was, to hie herself to London-town and take a 


4 2 


MRS. BOB. 


dear wee little flat — perhaps an entresol in Victoria 
Street — and make a delightful centre-place for her 
three dear children to meet at and look upon as home. 
If only Julia’s sharp tongue did not spoil everything ! 


CHAPTER IV. 

STEPHEN HOWARD’S PAST. 

“ "We spake of many a vanished scene, 

And what we once had thought and said, 

Of what had been and might have been, 

And who was change^ and who was dead.” 

— The Fire of Driftwood . 

I DO not hesitate to say that Julia Trafford had 
never passed such a night as the one which followed 
her first visit to Mrs. Bob Markham, in all her life. 
She could not get Stephen Howard’s lazy blue eyes 
and soft voice with its sweet Australian accents out 
of her head. She was impressed with the idea that 
he was more than ordinarily attracted by her and yet 
she could not believe it. 

She had no very great opinion of herself, and a 
very small and contemptuous one of her looks, and 
being very shrewd and sensible — like her mother — 
she could not believe that things really were as 
they seemed. And yet, try as she would she could 
not shut her eyes or her senses to the truth that 
this Stephen Howard had lingered beside her until 
his brother-in-law had come and turned him out, 
that he had detained them at the door just as long 


STEPHEN HOWARD’S PAST. 


43 


as they would stop in spite of the attractions of the 
beautiful Lady Lucifer, who had but just gone in and 
might reasonably expect him to follow her as soon 
as courtesy to his sister’s visitors would allow. Yet 
he had seemed in no hurry, in no hurry for anything 
except to see her again. 

And yet — Julia was in her own room tidying her 
hair and dressing for dinner, and she went quickly 
to the glass and scanned herself closely. She turned 
the gas bracket so as to throw a full light upon her 
face and then after a long look at herself, she shut 
her lips tightly and shook her head — “ No, it is 
incredible,” she murmured. “It cannot be. I’m 
such a little ugly thing.” And yet as she bustled 
about to wash her hands and change her frock she 
began to think about him again — naturally enough, 
for excitements of that kind had not often come 
into Julia Trafford’s life, and to do her justice, she 
was not one of those girls who fancied a love-affair 
when no love-affair was there. But this Stephen 
Howard — Stevie, Mrs. Markham had called him — 
was such a handsome fellow and he had looked 
straight at her with his blue lazy eyes and — 
and just then Julia, who was buttoning her 
gown, walked to the dressing-table and without 
meaning to do so, looked full at herself. For a 
moment she was quite startled by herself — she 
looked so bright, so like her younger sister who 
was very pretty, considered lovely indeed since she 
had become Lady Staunton, and she had such a 
pretty colour in her cheeks, such a light in her eyes. 


44 


MRS. BOB. 


such charming curves to her lips and — and really 
the hitherto despised little teapot spout of a nose 
did not, to use the phraseology of Julia’s own 
thoughts, look half bad. 

For a moment she laughed like a pleased child, 
then she pressed her hands to her flushed cheeks 
and her perplexed eyes and asked herself aloud, 
“ Heavens, can I be dreaming or am I going cracked 
or what ? ” and then the gong sounded below and 
she hastily finished her toilette and hurried down 
the stairs. 

Still she could not get the young man out of her 
head. Mrs.. Trafford, as was natural, was full of the 
new people and talked indeed about little or 
nothing else. “ Everything so nice and yet no 
show,” she said complacently — “indeed there was 
no sign of ostentatiousness excepting perhaps the 
footmen.” 

“ And everybody would have powdered footmen 
if they could afford it,” remarked Julia drily. 

“ Yes, you are right, Julia — at least, I am sure I 
should,” the little widow cried with her airiest 
laugh. “They must be very rich,” she added in 
a different tone. 

« Why ? ” 

“ Because nobody who was not very rich would 
have dreamt of setting up such an establishment of 
servants as they seem to have.” 

“Oh! I should think they were rich,” said Julia 
carelessly. 

She thought far less about their money than she 


STEPHEN HOWARD’S PAST. 


45 


did about Mr. Stephen Howard, in fact, she did not 
give a thought to the money at all except when 
Mrs. Trafford mentioned it ; but she went to bed 
and tossed feverishly about through all that long 
long night, haunted by a pair of lazy blue eyes and 
a wonder whether he would find his way to St. Eve’s 
on the morrow or not ? 

And in the morning she got up feeling like a limp 
rag and looking — well, so that when she saw herself 
in the glass, she fairly groaned. 

“ Have you a head-ache dear ? ” Mrs Trafford 
asked the moment after Julia entered the morning- 
room. 

“ Yes, I have rather a head-ache,” she answered. 

“ Poor child. I hope it won’t be worse as the day 
goes on,” Mrs. Trafford said in commiserating tones. 
“ Have a cup of tea, dear, and try to eat something. 
Nothing will carry it away so soon.” 

Thus bidden Julia sat down at the table and after 
a very respectable meal announced that she felt a 
good deal better. 

“Then,” said Mrs. Trafford, “ keep yourself very 
quiet this morning and most likely it will pass away. 
I have one or two little matters to see after and I 
have to go into the town, so you will be quite un- 
disturbed.” 

She very soon went out and then Julia tucked 
herself up on the comfortable roomy sofa in the 
morning-room and tried to make up for the ill effects 
of her bad night, not only tried but succeeded so 
thoroughly that when Mrs. Trafford returned two 


46 


MRS. BOB. 


hours later, she peeped into the room and found her 
eldest flower fast asleep. 

It was wonderful what that sleep did for Julia. 
She felt quite like another being, and did full justice 
to her lunch, for Mrs. Trafford remarked, “ There is 
nothing like food for nervous exhaustion, which is 
the proper name for half the headaches there are, my 
dear.” 

And then Julia went upstairs and dressed herseli 
in a nice smart tailor gown of dark green cloth — 
rifle-green I believe they call it — with some hand- 
some gold lace work about the collar and cuffs of it, 
and put on her out-door coat and hat. “ But, my 
dear child,” exclaimed Mrs. Trafford, when she made 
her appearance in the drawing-room, “ you are never 
going out ? ” 

“ Oh, my head is all right now, Mother dear,” said 
Julia, going to the long glass and pulling the edge 
of the strip of gold-beaded net which she wore for a 
veil well down over the tip of her little pert 
nose. “ I am only going down to Mason’s to see 
about my shoes. I shall be back before tea-time.” 

(i Oh, very well ; I am not going out again,” said 
Mrs. Trafford in a casual kind of tone. 

It was remarkable of this mother and, daughter 
that they never laid aside the mask which they 
habitually wore. If a thing were too extravagant 
for them to think of, they never said so. If some 
desire were unattainable, they never said as much ; 
they always spoke, even to each other, as if they did 
not care about it. This afternoon the same thought 


STEPHEN HOWARD’S PAST. 


47 


was in the heart of each, and the thought took the 
form of Stephen Howard. When Mrs. Trafford ex- 
claimed, “ My dear child, you are never going out ? ” 
she meant to say, “ Have you forgotten that Mr. 
Howard is coming ? ” and when Julia replied that her 
head was better and that she should be back before 
tea-time, she intended to convey that she had not in 
way forgotten that they were expecting a certain 
visitor, but that she was going out on purpose to be 
out when he should arrive. 

And sure enough, when Stephen Howard knocked 
at the door of No. 7* St. Eve’s, which he did about 
four o’clock, he found only Mrs. Trafford sitting alone 
in the bright and cosy drawing-room, a bright fire 
burning in the well-polished grate, and her deft 
little hands busy as usual with some crimson silk 
socks. 

He cast a glance round the room as if in search of 
someone whom at first sight he had not perceived. 
“ I am all alone, Mr. Howard,” said Mrs. Trafford, in 
her most friendly and hospitable manner — “ Julia 
has gone out — did you come by way of the High 
Street £ Yes ! Ah ! I wonder you did not meet 
her.” 

“ No, I never saw her,” said he, and it was evident 
both from his looks and his tone that he was dis- 
appointed. 

“Ah! She will be here presently,” said Mrs. 
Trafford with bland indulgence, much as she might 
have done if Julia was the acknowledged beauty of the 
town and this one of a score of her luckless adorers. 


48 


MRS. BOB. 




It was an admirable manner that particular manner 
of Mrs. Trafford’s, and she pointed to an exceedingly 
comfortable chair not very far from her own. 

“ Sit down and tell me what yon think about 
Blankhampton,” she said, “ or, stay, do you mind 
ringing the bell for me first ? ” 

Mr. Howard rang the bell, and then sat down in 
the chair. 

fie I suppose you are not in a great hurry ? ” she said 
kindly. 

“ Oh ! not at all,” he answered. 

tf That is all right. Oh ! Cox,” as the spruce 
parlour-maid appeared, “ we will have tea as soon as 
Miss Trafford comes in.” 

" Yes, Ma’am,” said Cox. 

“ And now,” said Mrs. Trafford to her visitor, u tell 
me how you like Blankhampton.” 

“ Immensely,” he replied promptly. f< At present 
better than any place I was ever in in all my life.” 

“ Better than Australia ? ” said Mrs. Trafford, 
smiling, as she plied her knitting-needles. 

“ Oh ! yes, far and away. In fact Australia is a 
loathsome country. I hate every inch of it.” 

“ Really ! And yet you were born there ? ” 

“ Which perhaps is why I detest it so thoroughly,* 
said he quickly. “Very likely, if I had been born 
in Blankhampton, I should dislike it as much as now 
I like it.” 

“ Yes, that is very likely,” Mrs. Trafford returned. 
“I think with most young people there is a great 
longing for fresh fields and pastures new, and it is 


STEPHEN HOWARD’S PAST. 


49 


only when you have been a long time away from the 
place where you were born and grew up that you 
have a sentimental feeling about it which makes you 
yearn to go back once more.” 

“Yes, you are right,” he answered ; “and in my 
case, when my longing for a sight of Australia comes 
over me, I shall make longing do instead of going.” 

“ Oh ! is it so bad as that ? ” Mrs. Trafford cried. 

“ Worse than that,” replied Mr. Howard, instantly. 

“ But why ? What is there so bad about the 

untry ? ” she asked. “ What can there be so 
different about England to make you feel like that 
about it ? ” 

Mr. Howard grew grave. “ Well, to tell you the 
truth, Mrs. Trafford,” he said, “ I never knew a 
really happy day in Australia until the day my 
father died. He is dead, and they say we ought not 
to speak ill of the dead, but in his case I cannot 
help it. He was the most unutterable brute I ever 
knew or heard of in all my life. I never could see, 
I have never been able to see, that he had a single 
redeeming quality — he was all bad from first to 
last. I hated him, I despised him, I loathed him 
Perhaps it is wrong of me to tell you all this, but at 
least it is candid. Our mother wns the sweetest, 
best, kindest, gentlest of women — Maimie and I 
worshipped her. He killed her.” 

“ Killed your mother ? ” cried Mrs. Trafford with 
the utmost horror depicted on her face. 

Stephen Howard gave a short hard laugh. “ Oh ! 
I don’t mean that he cut her throat or broke her 

4 


neck. He might have been hanged for that, even 
in the wilds of Australia. No, he just stopped short 
of that, but more than once he had a near shave, 
and only held his coward’s hand just in time. And 
at last, when I was sixteen, my mother died — his 
victim — the victim of the greatest brute I ever 
knew. I ought not to tell you all this, Mrs. Trafford, 
I daresay you will despise and distrust me for it, 
but — but — you are not unlike my mother, and I — I 
had to tell you somehow.” 

“ I understand — I know exactly,” Mrs. Trafford 
murmured soothingly. “ Why should you not tell 
me ? And I am deeply interested.” 

The excitement died out of the young man’s blue 
eyes, and he stretched out his hand to her. “ How 
kind you are,” he said. “ Mrs. Trafford, do you 
know that your daughter is so like my poor little 
mother — like what I remember her as a child, when 
I was a little youngster of ten or twelve, you 
know.” 

“ Ah ! yes,” Mrs. Trafford murmured. “ Yes ? ” 
she repeated. Light began to dawn upon what had 
hitherto been dark. She wanted to know more. 

“ I was sixteen when my mother died, worn out 
with the brutality she had borne for. more than 
twenty years. She wasn’t forty years old then, and 
often and often I used to wonder how she had ever 
borne it so long. After that, there were three, 

nearly four years of — of ” he broke off short, 

as if the word he was going to use for a comparison 
was just on the tip of his tongue and he had bitten 


STEPHEN HOWARD’S PAST. 


61 


it off at the very point of utterance — “ of misery,” 
he went on, “ such as I could not describe to you if 
I would, and I would not if I could. And then, 
thank Grod, my father died and I began to live.” 

“And you were provided for?” Mrs. Trafford 
asked. She had dropped her knitting upon her lap 
and sat looking like one fascinated at the handsome 
young .man with such a sad history in his past. 

“ Oh yes, he left plenty of money, and Maimie 
and I shared it equally,” Stephen Howard answered 
carelessly. 

There was a moment’s silence — Mrs. Trafford 
broke it. “ And then ? ” she said in a tone which 
signified that he was to go on. 

“ Then I came over here and went to Oxford,” he 
continued. “ It had always been a dream of my 
mother’s — she was an Englishwoman, you know.” 

“ Oh ! yes — and your father ” 

“ Was an Australian,” said Stephen Howard 
shortly. 

“ Ah ! I see ! ” murmured Mrs. Trafford. “ And 
you came to Oxford ? ” 

“ But I had only just entered when something 
went wrong with my property and I had to go back. 
I was just one and twenty then. And there I had 
to stay for more than a year. After that I made a 
tour through the States — then I put in six more 
months in Queensland and afterwards came to 
Europe. Then I went back and stayed five years — 
five years, hating it all the time, and at last with 
my brother-in-law’s help I got rid of all my pro- 

4 * 


62 


MRS. BOB. 


perty and put all my money into the Bank of 
England — then I felt safe, and before a week I had 
turned my back on Australia and, please Grod, I 
shall never see it again.” 

“ I am sure,” said Mrs. Trafford, “ that I hope 
you never will. What a dreadful story — a dreadful 
story. But tell me, have you never sought out your 
mother’s people ? ” 

“ My mother, so far as I know,” Stephen Howard 
answered, “ had not a relation in the world. She 
was a poor clergyman’s daughter and after his death 
went out to Australia as a governess at a time when 
women were scarce out there. She met my father 
and they were married ; I believe it was considered 
a great marriage at the time for her; poor soul she 
paid dear for it afterwards.” 

“ And your father ? ” asked Mrs. Trafford, who 
was breathless with the intensity of her interest in 
his story. 

<c My father,” he repeated. 

“ Yes — had he no relations ? Forgive me for 
asking you such a question,” she said gently, “ but 
you have told me so much and you have interested 
me deeply.” 

“Oh! yes, why should you not ask it? Well, 
Mrs. Trafford, I can tell you nothing more about my 
father — not even if his real name was as he said, not 
where he was born or who his father was. He may 
have been a convict for aught I know.” 

Mrs. Trafford looked at him for a moment as he 
sat in an easy and careless attitude, his blue eyes 


STEPHEN HOWARD’S PAST. 53 

fixed on the fire. “ You do not look like a convict’s 
son,” she said with a smile — “ and I think you 
would have known if he had been that.” 

“ Yes, I daresay I should. No, I don’t think he 
had been a convict, though he was bad enough to 
have been a convict fifty times over. As for my 
looks — well, it is a lucky circumstance for me that I 
don’t look like anything of that kind — but the 
handsomest man I ever saw in my life, Mrs. Traf- 
ford, was working among a gang of convicts at the 
gateway of the Infantry Barracks at Portland — the 
Yerne, they call it.” 

“ Yes, yes — and probably he was a gentleman 
who had — well, done something dreadful in the 
passion of the moment. Then your sister — does 
she feel like you about all this ? ” 

“ My sister,” — for a moment he looked puzzled. 
“ Well, no, I don’t think she does. You see she 
escaped those last four dreadful years. She is four 
years older than I am and she married Markham a 
few w’eeks before my poor mother died. And then 
Markham is very rich, a dear old chap all round, 
devoted to her and one of the best fellows in the 
world. So, don’t you see, I think Maimie has 
forgotten a good deal — as perhaps when I marry I 
shall be able to forget too. All the same, Mrs. 
Trafford, I must apologise for boring you with such 
a long story about myself. Believe me, I have 
never spoken of my father even to my sister since 
he died — but somehow I had to tell you.’' 

“Mr. Howard,” said Mrs. Trafford laying her hand 


54 


MRS. BOB, 


upon his arm and speaking in her kindest voice, “ I 
feel very grateful to you for giving me your con- 
fidence in this way. Believe me, it is not misplaced 
and I do not think that you will ever regret it. 1 
am so sorry for your unhappy past. I cannot tell 
you how sorry. But it is all over and done with 
now — your sister is very wise to have put it all out 
of her mind, for it can never do any good to recall 
sorrows which can never come into your life again. 
Yes, yes, I know what is in your mind ; you are 
thinking of that poor mother who suffered so much 
and had so little joy in her life. Well, all that has 
been made up to her long long ago, and most likely 
she knows just what you feel about her and is 
proud and glad that you should think of her as you 
do. But she would be the last to wish you to spoil 
your young life — for you are young yet — because 
hers was an unhappy one, the last to wish you to 
tinge your heart with the sadness which shadowed 
hers.” 

Stephen Howard shook himself together as Mrs. 
Trafford ceased speaking and passed his hand across 
his eyes as if to shut out all those memories of the 
past which their conversation had recalled. “ Yes, 
you are quite right,” he said very quietly, “ you are 
quite right.” 


LOVE, THE ALCHYMIST!. 


£6 


CHAPTER V. 

LOVE, THE ALCHYMIST. 

•• True be it said, what man it saydl 
That love with gall and honey doth abound; 

But if the one be with the other wayed, 

For every dram of honey therein found 
A pound of gall doth over it redound.” 

— Spenseb. 

Almost before the words had passed his lips, the 
door opened and Julia Trafford walked in! She 
gave a pretty start of surprise when she saw who 
was sitting with her mother and said with a laugh — 
“ Oh ! is it you, Mr. Howard ? Really I never ex- 
pected that you would come.” 

Mr. Howard got up and went across the room to 
meet her. Mrs. Trafford drew a long breath and 
felt as if Julia’s manner was one of great levity, felt 
as she might have felt if she had # heard some one 
laugh in the presence of the dead. For once she 
had no smile for her daughter, but she picked up 
the crimson silk sock again and went on knitting 
busily with a very grave face indeed. * Stephen 
Howard, however, seemed to have no such feeling, to 
notice nothing incongruous in the contrast between 


56 


MRS. BOB. 


his conversation with Mrs. Trafford and Julia’s fresh 
breezy and rather noisy entrance ; he took her hand 
in his, held it a long time, at least for a longer time 
than was absolutely necessary, and enquired after 
her health with a tenderness which made the girl’s 
heart fairly thump with excitement. 

“ Has my mother given you any tea ? ” she asked 
as she unbuttoned the smart coat which matched 
her gown. 

“ Not yet,” answered Mrs. Trafford, smiling at 
last, “I told Cox to bring it as soon as you came 
in.” 

“ That is all right. My mother is quite famous 
in Blankhampton for her hot buttered scones, Mr. 
Howard. Do you know what a scone is, or are you 
still too much of a savage for that ? ” 

“ Still too much of a savage,” he answered gaily 
— “ but I am ignorant only because I am ignorant. 
I don’t revel in it as some people do.” 

“ That is good, we will instruct you carefully,” 
Julia said smiling. 

She took her hat off and ruffled her hair up with 
her hand. She had pretty hair, a nice brown as to 
colour and of a curly nature, which fell into little 
natural curls in crisp weather, and needed but a 
touch or two with the tongs to make it presentable 
even in the hottest part of the year. Then she 
folded up her veil and tucked it neatly away in the 
crown of her hat, knowing all the time that Stephen 
Howard’s lazy blue eyes were watching her. Then 
Cox appeared with the tea, which was quite as 


LOVE, THE ALCHYMIST. 


57 


pretty and quite as well arranged as Mrs. Mark- 
ham’s had been, and Julia sat down to do the 
honours thereof. 

Scarcely, however, had she handed his cup to him 
when the door opened and Mrs. Lovelace was shown 
in — 44 Captain Tigard will be here in three minutes,” 
murmured Juba to Stephen Howard. She proved 
to be right. Mrs. Tratford introduced him to Mrs. 
Lovelace, who flashed her black eyes at him with 
a glance of keen interest and sat down where he 
would be able to have a good view of her little bold 
face, when he should resume his seat again. And 
before he had done so — for Julia gave Mrs. Lovelace 
the cup which had been brought for her — the door 
opened again and Cox appeared once more, followed 
by Mrs. Lovelace’s special admirer. 

Mr. Howard got himself as near to Julia, and as 
far away from Mrs. Lovelace, as the size of the room 
and the position of the tea-tray would allow. “ Hoes 
he always turn up like that ? ” he asked of Julia in 
a whisper. 

44 Always,” said Julia with decision. 

44 Is he engaged to her ? ” he asked in the same 
low tone. 

Julia looked horrified. 44 Grood Heavens, Mr. 
Howard, she has a husband.” 

44 You don’t say so — I thought they seemed on 
such every-day sort of terms — didn’t shake hands or 
anything.” 

44 Oh, I daresay she has seen him before to-day, ’ 
said Julia carelessly. 


58 


MRS. BOB. 


‘‘Yes, but what does the husband say to it?” 
Stephen Howard persisted. 

“ I don’t know that he says anything — he puts 
up with it,” Julia replied. 

“ Ah ! Do all the married ladies in England do 
that sort of thing ? ” he asked. 

“ No, but a great many fashionable ones do — it 
looks so smart, you know, to have two men always 
about with you.” 

“ Does your sister always have a man about with 
her?” he asked gravely. 

“ Always ; ” returned Julia with a gay laugh — 
“but it is her husband, you know! Why, they 
adore one another.” 

“ I see. Then did she ” — indicating Mrs. Love- 
lace by a look — “ ever adore her husband ? ” 

“ Oh ; I believe she did once. Someone told me 
the other day that they were the spooniest couple 
who ever made all their friends uncomfortable, and 
that Mrs. Lovelace made quite an exhibition of 
herself when she was first married. She has made 
up for it since,” said Julia in a caustic tone, “ for 
she can scarcely speak civilly to him now,” 

“ And the other man ? ” 

“ Is in the cavalry regiment quartered here now — 
I don’t like him.” 

“ He is not much to look at,” rejoined Howard, 
with a glance at Legard’s heavy-featured face. “ I 
saw him in the Cathedral gardens this afternoon as 
I came here.” 

“Yes?” said Julia, for his tone betokened 


LOVE, THE ALCHEMIST. 


59 


that he had had reason to notice this man par- 
ticularly. 

“ He was talking to a lady, a young lady,” 
Stephen Howard went on lazily — “ a very pretty 
young lady and I thought that — well, that he looked 
interested to say the least of it.” 

“ A young lady, and pretty ? ’* repeated Julia. 

“ Very tall and exceedingly fair with all her 
hair put away from her face ; and something about 
her gown not quite like other people’s gowns. It 
had an old-fashioned look about it to my eyes.” 

“ Oh ; yes, yes — Pamela Winstanley, of course. 
Her father is one of the Canons at the Parish. Of 
course, they came yesterday and the Berkeleys went 
away. Yes — yes — but I wonder how they met, for 
he was not here when they were here last year.” 

Almost as she spoke, Cox appeared again and 
announced “Miss Winstanley,” and the very girl 
of whom they had been speaking walked into the 
room. 

Well, a girl she was not, but a woman of at 
least nine and twenty but by reason of her fair 
complexion looking a good d eal younger than that. 
She had very nice manners a little tending towards 
go-aheadishness (to be very wicked and coin a 
word) greeted Mrs. Trafford in a clear pleasant 
voice and betrayed at once something more than a 
tendency to colloquial English. 

“Ah! Claude, how are you?” she said to Mrs. 
Lovelace, then looked past her at Captain Legard 
and said with a very hail-fellow-well-met air — “ I 


60 


MRS. BOB. 


needn’t say e How d’you do,’ to you again, need I ? ” 
and then moved to the tea-table and kissed Julia 
with a good deal of effusion. 

Before Julia had time to introduce her to Mr. 
Howard, she caught a quick jealous flash of Mrs. 
Lovelace’s black eyes at Captain Legard. Then 
Miss Winstanley moved quickly back towards the 
fire and began to enquire very cordially after Mrs. 
Trafford’s health, finally saying that she would like 
a cup of tea, and subsiding in the most natural 
way in the world into the very chair nearest to 
Captain Legard. 

Captain Legard, as a matter of ordinary courtesy, 
had to attend to her wants, and did so apparently 
with no small amount of pleasure. Mrs. Lovelace 
looked as black as a thunder-cloud, and her bold 
little face looked as sullen as an angry child’s ; and 
it grew blacker and blacker as -Captain Legard’s 
broad shoulder was turned towards her that he 
might the better chat with Miss Winstanley. 

“ Will you put my cup down ? ” she said at last 
in a furious voice. 

Captain Legard raised his eye-brows but got up 
with a great show of politeness and took the cup 
from her, which by-the-bye she might just as easily 
have set down upon the little table beside her ; and 
having put it back upon the tray, he went back to 
his seat and took up his conversation with Miss 
Winstanley exactly where Mrs. Lovelace’s request 
had broken it off. 

It was altogether too much for the furious little 


LOVE, THE ALCHEMIST. 


61 


lady with the black eyes ; she jumped up from her 
chair and walked over to Mrs. Trafford. 

“ Yes I must go thanks,” she said in answer to 
that lady’s rather lukewarm “ Must you go ? ” — 
“We are dining at the Palace to-night and I have 
several letters to write before I dress. Gfood-bye — 
So glad to have found you in.” 

She contrived to whisper “ Aren’t you coming ? ” 
as she passed Captain Legard, in a tone which had 
he been her husband would have meant a bad 
quarter of a hour by-and-by — and in reply he 
answered in a rather louder tone, “Not just now,” 
after which, with a scant adieu to Julia, Mrs. Love- 
lace went away. 

“ Mrs. Trafford and Julia looked significantly at 
one another, as if to say that the atmosphere was 
stormy, but Captain Legard sat down again beside 
Miss Winstanley and went on talking as if such a 
person as Mrs. Lovelace did not exist. 

“ The lady did not seem ” began Stephen 

Howard. 

“ No, exactly,” rejoined Julia drily. “ Mother, 
dear, any more tea ? ” 

“Not any more, thanks dear,” Mrs. Trafford 
answered, giving her attention to the crimson sock. 

“ You will, Pamela — it is fresh tea,” said Julia, 
and Pamela did have another cup, and another hot 
buttered scone. 

“ Does she often look like that ? ” asked Stephen 
Howard. 

“ Pretty often,” Julia replied. 


62 


MRS. BOB. 


“ What a pity — for she is pretty.” 

‘‘Yes — I have seen her look charming,” Julia 
replied. “ When she is pleased and all goes smooth, 
her own diamonds are not more bright than she is”. 

“ Has she good diamonds ? Is she a person of 
importance ? ” he said carelessly. 

“ Oh yes, she is a county woman,” Julia replied, 
“ and her diamonds are exquisite. When she wants 
to look smart she blazes like a jeweller’s shop.” 

He went away presently with a permission to 
come with his sister on Sunday afternoon, and in- 
deed to look in whenever he liked. And after a 
few minutes more Miss Winstanley and Captain 
Legard went away together . 

“ He is going home with her,” cried Julia greatly 
excited. “ Mother, did you see it all ! She was 
furious . How silly of her to give herself away like 
that.” 

She ran to the bow window from which they could 
see the entire length of the street — Mrs. Lovelace, 
by-the-bye had rooms in the corner house on the 
opposite side of the way. 

“ They are going right past the house,” Julia 
cried in an ecstasy of enjoyment. “ And Mrs. Love- 
lace is standing at the drawing-room window. Oh ! 
what a row there will be. I wonder if he, too, is 
dining at the Palace to-night ? ” 

“ It is very silly — I wonder that a pretty woman 
of standing can be so foolish as to put herself in 
such a position,” said Mrs. Trafford secure in the 
dignity of having herself not so long ago refused to 


LOVE, THE ALCHYMIST. 


63 


marry Colonel Urquhart, the smartest commanding 
officer who had shed the light of his countenance on 
Blankhampton for many and many a day. 

Mrs. Trafford went away then, but Julia sat still 
in the window idly watching passers by in the street 
and thinking a good deal about Stephen Howard. 
She was not so excited as she had been on the 
previous day, for it is wonderful how even the 
plainest of women and those who have long given 
up hoping for a leaf of romance to illumine the dull 
book of their lives, take to the position of queen 
when they find it offered to them. Already the 
improvement in Julia Trafford’s whole person and 
manner was not only apparent but marked. Already 
it seemed as if her cheeks had bloomed afresh and 
had suddenly come out in dimples, she brought out 
quite a stock of little coquettish airs and graces 
admirably adapted to go with the little tip-tilted 
nose and curly top-knot which afore-time had been 
her distinguishing characteristics. And already she 
looked years .and years younger. Surely Love is a 
wonderful alchymist ! He turns the old lamps into 
new, and grinds the old young again. Not, all the 
same, that I wish you to infer from that I look upon 
Julia Trafford as being old. No — no — but she was 
not so young, that is so girlish, as she had been ten 
years before : she was seven and twenty years old, 
which in Blankhampton, let me tell you, where 
women have no pursuit but marriage and only go in 
for study of the arts in a very casual and dilletante- 
like way, is looked upon as by no means youthful. 


64 


MRS. BOB. 


She was still sitting in the window when she saw 
Captain Legard come sauntering back from the 
direction of the Parish. Evidently he had been in 
with Pamela Winstanley or else they had lingered a 
long time on the steps of the Residence, occupied 
perhaps in admiring the fine Gothic architecture of 
the Cathedral, familiarly called “ the Parish.” Per- 
haps they had been listening to the jackdaws cawing 
overhead — perhaps they had been but listening to 
and admiring one another. 

He was walking very slowly, idly sauntering 
along, looking neither to right nor to left and evi- 
dently not trying to attract attention in any way. 
But he did attract attention, nevertheless, for 
as Julia watched him cross the road at the end 
of the street, she saw also a movement of the white 
lace curtains which shaded the window of Mrs.. 
Lovelace’s sitting-room and then saw the sleek 
dark head thrust into view as she watched him pass 
along. 

As Julia watched, Mrs. Lovelace gave*an involun- 
tary gesture with her band as if she would knock at 
the window and call him back. Then she drew 
back a little and the next moment Captain Legard 
returned into sight again, walking by the side of one 
of the Mauleverer sisters, at that time Mrs. Love- 
lace’s most intimate friend. 

“ He is going there with her,” thought Julia with 
quite a sigh of relief, a sigh that was surely the 
greatest proof of all of the power of the alchymist 
Love. 


OUT FOR A RAMBLE. 


6£ 

But no ! They stopped at the door of the house 
at the corner and Miss Mauleverer rang the bell — 
then turned back to him and apparently asked him 
to go in also. Captain Legard, however, shook his 
head and when the door was opened took Miss 
Mauleverer’s hand, lifted his hat and slowly saun- 
tered away again without so much as a glaflce at 
the window above. By the quiver of the lace 
curtains Julia saw that Mrs. Lovelace was still there. 
“ What a shame,” she found herself murmuring in- 
dignantly. 


CHAPTER VI. 

OUT FOR A RAMBLE. 

** A large portion of mankind have something of shame about 
them. And all such persons feel an instinctive aversion and dread 
towards anyone whom they believe can see through them.” 

— Whatioly. 

Without actually putting her thoughts into words, 
Mrs. Trafford decided that she would make her next 
Sunday afternoon quite a party. She did indeed 
say to Julia that they would ask a few people to 
come in after the Parish, and she wrote a few notes 
to such men in the neighbourhood as were available, 
among them various soldiers quartered in the gar- 
rison, and G-erard de Lisle ; also Mr. de Lisle’s 
bosom friend, one Anthony Mauleverer, a young 

5 


66 


MRS. BOB. 


man of distinguished appearance, delightful manners 
and the general air of a stage brigand. I believe he 
was utterly innocent of any desire to shine in that 
way and that thus his appearance was against him, 
but without doubt he was, looked at from a matri- 
monial point of view, a detrimental of the most 
pronounced type. Yet Mrs. Trafford made a good 
deal of fuss over him — illnatured people said be- 
cause he was first cousin to the Mauleverers. The 
three spinsters who lived in St. Eve’s, a few doors 
from No. 7, called Mrs. Trafford “ a pushing little 
person, who is always trying to know US,” and would 
not let themselves slip into visiting terms with her 
at any price. 

As a general thing only about half-a-dozen people 
found their way to No. 7 St. Eve’s after the Parish, 
but on extra occasions it was wonderful how large 
a gathering Mrs. Trafford was able to get together, 
without having made a formal party. On this 
particular afternoon, for instance, it was wonderful 
to notice how long she lingered to speak just a word 
with her acquaintances in the outer courts — other- 
wise the Nave — of the Parish, and how twice on her 
way to her pew — no, I mean her stall — she stopped 
to whisper a single sentence to two rather im- 
portant ladies, “ Come in after the service,” and 
then went up and, so to speak, devotionally buried 
herself, following every word of the familiar service 
with large book and double gold eye-glass held 
some six or eight inches from the end of her nose. 
Without doubt, although I have come to have the 


OUT FOR A RAMBLE. 


67 


tenderest affection for Mrs. Trafford since I first 
began to write about her, she was taken all round 
quite a study, an interesting study. 

Then after service was over, she and Julia 
separated and each gathered in a few more recruits 
as she went homewards, so that by the time Mrs. 
Bob Markham, with Bob and Stephen Howard in 
tow, found her way to No. 7, quite a bustle was 
going on and the sound of many voices greeted 
them as they went up the stair. 

Stephen Howard found that Julia was too busy 
with the tea tray to do more for him than smile 
brightly and ask him to help her with the cups, and 
whilst he was handing cups and a plate of neatly 
rolled bread and butter from one to the other, he 
became aware that Mrs. Lovelace, gorgeously 
dressed in black with gold embroideries, was flirting 
desparately with two young officers, and that 
Captain Legard and Miss Pamela Winstanley were 
snugly ensconced in the window, Legard with his 
back to the company, Miss Pamela facing him, with 
gratified pride of possession written on every line of 
her fair and rather mean though pretty face. 

u H’m,” ran Stephen Howard’s thoughts, “ trust 
a woman to dig the knife in deep when once she 
has found the spot where another woman flinches.” 

A little farther away Mrs. Trafford was talking 
to Lady Lucifer and her [new friend Mrs. Mark- 
ham. 

What are those large rooms just at the end of 
the street ? ” Mrs. Markham was saying. 


5 * 


MRS. BOB. 


“ Oil ! those are the Assembly Rooms, the 
best ball-rooms in England,” answered Mrs. Traf- 
ford. 

“ The very place for millionaires like you to give 
balls in, Maimie,” laughed Lady Lucifer. 

Mrs. Trafford opened her eyes somewhat to thus 
hear the extremely exclusive Lady Lucifer address 
the Australian lady by her Christian name, but evi- 
dently Mrs. Bob was quite used to the familiarity, 
for she patted Lady Lucifer’s hand and answered, 
“ Now don’t chaff me like that, Violet. You know 
very well we are not millionaires — we are just com- 
fortably off. All the same, I should like to give a 
ball in those rooms. It wouldn’t be half the 
trouble of having it in one’s own house and not half 
the trouble for one’s friends either. But I must 
get to know a few more people first.” 

“ Oh ! I will send out the invitations for you ! ” 
suggested Lady Lucifer gaily. 

But Mrs. Markham looked doubtful. I'm told 
that people do that in London, but I don’t think 
Bob would like it. It would look like trying to 
push ourselves into society on vour shoulders, and 
old friends as you and I are I don’t think it would 
be quite fair to do that.” 

“ Well, put it off a little till you see how you like 
the place for hunting,” suggested her ladyship 
good-naturedly, 66 and when you do want to give a 
ball, I will help you all I can.” * 

“ Yes, that is more like it,” answered Mrs. Mark- 
ham — then turned to Mrs. Trafford — e< You did not 


OUT FOE A E AMBLE. 


69 


know that Lady Lucifer and I were girls together, 
did you ? ” 

“ No, indeed/’ answered Mrs. Trafford, deeply 
interested. 

“ But that is so. Lady Lucifer’s father, Sir 
Ranald Tempest, was Governor of Queensland — five 
years was he there, Violet ? ” 

“Yes, five years,” Lady Lucifer answered, “five 
of the happiest years of my life, and Maimie 
Howard was the dearest friend I made during the 
whole time I was there.” 

“ How delightful to meet again and be neighbours 
after so many years,” murmured Mrs. Trafford, and 
then leaving them to- enjoy each other’s society, 
she moved away to speak to others of her visitors. 

She was more than conscious of a feeling that 
Mrs. Markham must be a very kind as well as a 
very well-bred woman or she would have told 
Colonel Coles — who, by-the-bye, had just got pro- 
motion and was a Major-General now, which pro- 
bably meant that he would soon be home from India 
— that she had little or no need of a letter of 
introduction to anybody in or near Blankhampton, 
being an old friend of one of the smartest and most 
powerful ladies in the whole of the county. “ I feel 
that I shall like Mrs. Markham,” Mrs. Trafford said 
to herself as she approached Lady Margaret Adair, 
the Dean’s wife, who was in the pre-occupied state 
of a woman trying to do two things at once; one 
was to listen to Mrs. Fairlie, who had her most pro- 
nounced society voice and manner on, the other 


70 


MRS. BOB. 


was to keep her eye on Mr. Anthony Manleverer 
and her own pretty daughteV, who had drawn nearer 
to each other than Lady Margaret quite liked. 

1 may be wrong and misguided in every way, but 
I cannot understand how any man or woman can 
get tired of the study of people. Those who live in 
the whirl of London Society, whether it is solely 
and strictly the Society of Fashion or the Society of 
Wit, naturally after a long spell, grow tired of 
Society itself, of going out day after day and night 
after night, from drum to dinner and dinner to 
crush, to say nothing of lunches and theatres thrown 
in, with all the unutterable fag of paying calls, 
leaving paste-boards, sitting out matinees and re- 
citals, looking in at bazaars and other charity 
functions. One may get tired and fagged with all 
these, but to me the study of the human kind 
remains just as interesting as at first. In my case 
I fly to green trees and pleasant fields— at this 
moment I am writing in a house from which you 
cannot see another dwelling with the exception of a 
cottage or small farm-house on the slope of rising 
ground half-a-mile away. All I ask here is to be 
let alone, to have no dinners, no teas, no society 
But people are just as interesting ( when I come 
across them) as ever. 

For instance the other day, wife and I went out 
to look at a set of harness which we had heard was 
for sale at the stable of a neighbouring parson. But 
ye gods, how our pride suffered before we got home 
again ! But I will tell you about it ! 


OUT FOE A E AMBLE. 


71 


We started from home with a clever little Welsh 
pony fleet and sound, and a smart cart borrowed 
from our friend the Inn-keeper. We flattered our- 
selves that we looked presentable, or if not so grand 
as that, at least respectable. I have always tho- 
roughly believed myself to be a man of passable 
appearance and my wife is a happy-looking buxom 
person who thinks she looks as if she did not 
belong to the labouring class — I mean the hard- 
working class. 

Well, we set off in the best of health and spirits, 
pointed out to each other this old farm-house, that 
pretty bit of landscape, till we reached the first 
village — let us call it Cornby. There we posted our 
letters for the day and left an order at the butcher’s, 
then went gaily through what they call in these 
parts “ the Street ” and took what the natives call 
u the fust tarn to the right.” 

“ That is the Hall, I should think,” said Nell to 
me — the Hall meant the house of our landlord. 

“ I should think it is — it’s a pretty place,” said 
I — and by-the-by I think I ought to mention here 
that we had only been a week or so in possession of 
our new retreat. 

About half a mile further on down a steep dip in 
the road we met — a person ! He was of the mascu- 
line gender and looked like a naval man, except for 
his manners. He was a fine fellow, big and stalwart, 
dressed in well-made heather-mixture shooting 
clothes, showing a pair of brawny legs which cer- 
tainly would have had a fine chance of a prize or at 


72 


MRS. BOB. 


least of honourable mention at a show for under- 
standings ! He was goodish looking too, had a pair 
of handsome eyes and a brown beard cut, after the 
fashion of naval men, close to his face. Over his 
shoulder he carried a tennis-racket to which were 
slung a pair of tennis-shoes. One perhaps could 
not expect much in the way of manners from a 
gentleman who was going to a lady’s tennis -party 
clad in a garb fit for Scotch moors, but be that as it 
may, this gallant accosted us, pulled us up with an 
imperative wave of his hand and said : “ Haw ! Do 
you know which is Cornby Hall ? ” 

“ No,” said I, thinking he might at least have 
touched his hat to the lady in my cart. <e I am 
almost a stranger about here and I really don’t know.” 

The gallant . looked at me as if he thought I was 
dreaming or drunk. “ Don’t you know where it 
is ? ” he persisted. 

“ No, I don’t,” said I, “ I believe it’s somewhere 
near the village. The jj village is a mile or so 
further on.” 

“ Oh ” a pause, then he pointed to the old" 

red brick house which we had passed and spoken of. 
u Is that the house ? ” 

“ I don’t know,” said I shortly. 

I signified to the Welsh pony that she might go 
on and the gentleman with the legs strode forward 
with a curt “ — — nks ” flung over his shoulder as if 
we had done him a special and personal injury 
because we did not happen to know where Cornby 
Hall was. 


OUT FOR A RAMBLE. 


73 


My wife turned and looked after him as he swung 
along the road, then looked at me with resentful 
eyes. “ He must have taken us for some of the 
country people,” she said, then, as I laughed, added 
indignantly, “ But even if he did he might have 
touched his hat.” 

“ Particularly as he stopped our trap,” said I with 
a laugh. 

“ Yes,” she answered, and after a minute or two 
she burstfout, “ What a snob ! ” 

A few days afterwards we had occasion to call on 
the lady at Corn by Hall ourselves, and found to our 
joy that it was some way beyond where we had met 
our courteous friend with the legs, that he had then 
come at least half a mile past the house, and as 
Nell said to me, “ We must have sent him a mile 
and a half out of his road,” and then she added 
vindictively, “ Thank Heaven ! ” 

I might tell a great deal about the reverend 
gentlemen (Shades of courtesy and chivalry forgive 
me for using the already degraded term to such an 
one), to whom that set of harness belonged. I 
might indeed give him a whole chapter to himself 
if I chose, but my Blankhampton people are waiting, 
so a few words will suffice for him. In truth I 
think that I need only say one thing, which is that 
he had the true parson idea of his own importance 
— and I feel that as I myself was brought up in the 
bosom of the Church I am at liberty to know a 
parson when I see him a trifle better than many 
people. The time may come — and I sincerely trust 


71 


MRS. BOB. 


it will — when I shall see mj great Clerical Staff 
College an accomplished fact. Mr. Walter Besant 
has not had to live many years to see his “ All Sorts 
and Conditions of Men ” grow into a reality. Why 
not I also ? I may say but one thing about what I 
shall do when that day comes — I shall of course, as 
the Founder and Originator of the Institution be 
made a Life-Governor, with permanent gift of a 
bed, so to speak. Well, I shall give my- first 
nomination to my bargain-driving friend who was 
the owner of that secondhand set of harness, and 
I shall except nobody, not even John, by Divine 
Providence, Lord Bishop of Blackhampton. ‘ There 
will be hundreds of subscribers eager and anxious 
to provide for him . 

Well, to go back to the point from which I 
started — and I hope the critics (especially my dear 
friend, Blue Stocking, who sits in such merciless 
judgment upon all of us poor scribblers, Heaven 
help her and us), will not be too hard upon my dis- 
cursiveness ; if they feel inclined to be so let me 
recommend them to go and do better, if they can — 
I was going to say that one of the most singular 
bits of information which one learns from a study of 
the human being is to see how thoroughly it pays 
to assume the position which one wishes to take in 
the estimation of other people, and how the 
majority of those people take you at your own 
valuation! 

At this moment I know a literary woman — no, my 
friend, I am not going to give you the smallest clue 


OUT FOR A RAMBLE. 


75 


to her identity, so you need not look for it. She 
is honoured, f§ted, quoted as a celebrity of great 
distinction, and yet everybody whom I know — and 
I have a very large acquaintance in the Society of 
Wit — ends by asking the same questions', “ By-the- 
bye have you ever read anything of hers ? What 
has she written ? ” It was very much in this way 
with Mrs. Fairlie ! She was a pretty woman, with 
a sharp hatchet-like face — still distinctly pretty, 
mind — a terrible figure and worse feet. Yet she 
came as a bride to Blankhampton, where remember 
the majority of the girls were more than pretty, and 
she took up the position of the beauty of the place. 
Nobody quite knew how she did it — certainly not 
because she was the prettiest woman in the town. 
I could mention twenty at this moment who were 
infinitely more beautiful in face and I doubt if I 
could find one who was worse in build. Nor was it 
that she dressed well — on the contrary I think she 
was generally rather badly turned out, with often a 
skirt that did not match itself ail round, and once I 
saw her at a particularly smart function, in the 
shape of a concert at which all the rank and fashion 
of the neighbourhood had gathered itself together, 
in a dark silk gown with an extraordinary arrange- 
ment of white muslin adown the front of her bodice 
and up the sleeves to the elbow, which looked 
exactly as if she had been at a school of cookery 
earlier in the day and had not had time to change 
her frock. 

Yet undeniably Mrs. Fairlie had the position in 


76 


MBS. BOB. 


the town of being quite the beauty of the place, 
some indeed went so far as to call her 44 the Blank- 
hampton Lily,” and I have heard her termed 44 the 
Parish Lily ” — which I confess was hard on the lady. 
The very last time that I had the pleasure (and it 
was a pleasure) of seeing Mrs. Fairlie, it was in the 
High Street at Blankhampton. I had not seen her 
for some little time. I had always been used to 
seeing a sight out of the common, but I admit on 
this particular morning the dazzling nature of 
her Blankhampton Lily-ness fairly took my breath 
away. 

She is tall and thin — were she not a beauty, she 
might be called lanky — and she was dressed in 
black, not in mourning though.' She had a very 
tall hat and very short skirts, very smart boots with 
very high heels. She had also a Pompadour stick 
with a big silver knob on top. Behind ran a huge 
black poodle, a lovely brute, shaven and shorn and 
fluffed and curled till he most of anything resembled 
a yew-tree, as you see them dipt in old-fashioned 
gardens. Round his neck he wore a massive silver 
collar with a fow of silver bells big enough for a 
pony, and round each of his semi-shaven black legs 
a silver bangle. It was a wonderful sight, and had 
the poodle been as much alive to the beauty and 
importance of possessing such a mistress as his 
mistress certainly was of having such a dog, why 
he would have walked sedately in front or have 
followed demurely behind. As it was it was plain 
to see that that poodle-dog had no pride — he 


OUT FOR A RAMBLE. 


77 


declined all control, and shewed no sense of decency 
whatever. Away he raced down the dirty street, 
oblivious of a long and dainty toilette just completed, 
forgetful of his dignity and bangles alike, to say 
nothing of his silver collar and jingling bells, and 
his mistress might, and did, c^ll and coax in vain, 
might flourish her silver-topped Pompadour stick 
and look for all the world like a barn-door hen 
standing at the edge of the pond into which her 
clutch of ducklings have boldly plunged unheeding 
alike of her fear and her distress. It was a touch- 
ing sight — I shall never forget it! And the last I 
saw of that depraved and mindless poodle-dog, he 
was lying on his back in the middle of a muddy 
street romping and playing leap-frog with a dirty 
little mongrel, who looked altogether too dis- 
reputable to belong to anybody. If the Blank- 
hampton Lily took that dog home and gave him a 
sound beating I do not think that I should find it 
in my heart to blame her, though I am not an 
advocate for beating at any time. 

Well, I have rambled off a long way from Mrs. 
Traflford’s little party — I apologise dear Reader and 
hope I have not bored you by the way. We will go 
back to the pretty drawing-room at No 7 and try 
to pick up the thread of affairs just w'here we let it 
slip ! What — all gone ? Why surely I had forg^e*i 
how late it had got before 1 took you that long 
journey just to make the acquaintance of a manner- 
less man with a pair of brawny legs and a pompous 
little country parson whom I didn’t think worth 


78 


HES. BOB. 


describing to you. Well, well, forgive me this 
time and I will try to keep a tight grip of my 
story during the rest of the way over which we mean 
to travel together. 

% 

CHAPTEK VII. 

A VISIT TO MATCH AM! 

* Wealth and the high estate of pride 
With what untimely speed they glide 
How soon depart ! 

Bid not the shadowy phantoms stay, 

The vassals of a mistress they 
Of fickle heart.” 

— CorLAS de Mansique. 

A few days afterwards a little note came by hand 
from Lady Lucifer to the little lady at No. 7 St. 
Eves. 

“ My dear Mrs. Trafford,” it said — “ We are having 
a large party at Matcham for shooting next week, 
and it will give Lord Lucifer and myself much 
pleasure if you and Miss Trafford will come to us 
from the 21st to the 28th of the month. Mr. and 
Mrs. Markham and Mr. Howard will be with us then. 
I know you will find it pleasant to meet them. If 
you can give the man who brings this note an answer 
it will be a convenience to me, as I should like to 
know before post time if you can come or not. 

“ My dear Mrs. Trafford, yours sincerely, Violet 
Lucifer.” 


A VISIT TO MATCRAM! 


79 


Now it happened that Julia was not at home when 
her mother received and opened this letter. Mrs. 
Trafford did not hesitate about what answer she 
should make. She went to her little desk and wrote 
a sweet note to her dear Lady Lucifer to the effect 
that she and Julia would be charmed to come to 
Matcham on the 21st of the month. 

“Very sweet, I’m sure, of Lady Lucifer to think 
of us,” she said as she saw the admirable Cox go out 
to the groom waiting on horseback at the door. 66 1 
wish Julia would come in.” 

She saw that Cox asked the man some question for 
he took the note and still waited while Cox went 
back into the house, re-appearing in two or three 
minutes with a tall glass of beer on a neat little tray. 

“ Eeally Cox is an admirable and valuable servant,” 
murmured Mrs. Trafford. 

She was not sorry to have a groom in the Lucifer 
livery standing for a time at her door. Mrs. Trafford 
always had half an eye to effect on the Mauleverer 
spinsters three doors away. 

How she did wish Julia would coine home, but the 
minutes went by and Julia, who was at that moment 
in the principal music-shop of the town turning over 
the latest songs, did not make her appearance and 
her mother had to possess her soul in such patience 
as she could. Just before lunch-time, however, she 
came, to hear the great news and to say with some- 
thing like dismay — “ Mother, dear, I really don’t 
see how I am to go without a frock or two.” 

Now Mrs. Trafford had but lately had two smart 


MRS. BOB. 


£» 

weddings to drain her slender purse, and Julia was a 
good girl who never put her mother about in the way 
of expenditure if she could help it. But Mrs. 
Trafford was a wise and skilful general ; she knew 
when to hold her hand and when to pile on all her 
strength, and she laughed at Julia’s dismayed face. 

44 Oh, my dear, you must have frocks and so on,” 
she said. 44 You know we do not go to Lord Lucifer’s 
to stay every day. I shall not need much — I shall 
have a new tea-gown for I really want a new one 
apart from this visit. But I think that is all, nobody 
will look much at me. But with you it is different ; 
you must have a couple of evening gowns and a new 
morning-frock, and anything else that you want.” 

44 It is awfully extravagant,” protested Julia. 

44 It is imperative, my dear,” returned Mrs. Trafford 
in a tone which did not admit of argument. 

Yet all the same, she felt that it was good of her 
girl to be willing even to think of cost at such a 
time. 44 Nobody has such good children as I have,” 
she said to herself, and her thoughts included her 
niece, Madge, as one of her children just as much as 
her own daughter, Laura. 

Immediately after lunch they went off to the dress- 
maker and held a consultation with her. 44 1 will 
have something quite inexpensive, Mother,” said 
Julia, as they went. 44 1 can get something very 
smart in soft silk or cashmere, and you must have 
your tea-gown of a rich material.” 

44 1 suppose 1 must,” said Mrs. Trafford doubtfully. 

She was a very unselfish little woman, and would 


A VISIT TO MATCHAM 1 


81 


have gone cheerfully to pay her grand visit without 
so much as a new pair of gloves in order that one of 
her girls might be freshly dressed land well finished 
off in all the little details of her costume. But 
Julia was unselfish too, and Julia insisted upon the 
material for the tea-gown being of a rich and suitable 
kind, and arranged fully with the dressmaker that 
the trimmings should be neither poor nor skimped. 
Oh yes, they were good girls, not a doubt about it. 

Well, on the appointed day Mrs. Trafford and 
Julia set off for Matcham, a matter of ten miles or 
so by rail and three or four beyond that by road. 
They were very happy, the mother and daughter ; 
the mother because she was going to stay a week at 
one of the smartest houses in the county, the daughter 
because he would be there ! 

They had seen a good deal of him during the 
time between the little afternoon gathering after 
the service at the Parish and the day on which they 
found themselves at the station for Matcham, but 
though they had got on like — like a house on fire 
Julia would have said, neither Mrs. Trafford nor Julia 
herself was prepared to find Stephen Howard 
awaiting them on the gravelled platform of the little 
country station. 

“Oh ! Mr. Howard,” exclaimed Julia, as she caught 
sight of him. 

“ Are you come to meet us ? ” cried Mrs. Trafford 
as she gave him her hand to alight. 

“ Why, of course,” he answered. “ We were all 
doing nothing — some of us thinking about tennis 

6 


82 


MRS. BOB. 


and others not thinking about anything at all. I 
found my way out to the stables to find something 
there to think ^Tb out, and I happened to see the 
break coming off for you — so I came with it.” 

“That was very nice of you,” said Julia sweetly. 

How Julia was altered ! By the time they drove 
in at the big gates at Matcham, with the family 
device hewn in stone on either side, an imp 
rampant carrying a pitchfork, she was looking quite 
pretty, and when Lady Lucifer came out into the 
beautiful old oak hall to welcome them, she found 
herself saying in her own heart that really Stephen 
Howard (whom, up to that day, she had firmly 
believed was taking leave of his senses) knew very 
well what he was about, and that little Miss Trafford 
was growing quite pretty. 

The Lucifers were among the few people 
possessing a large and lovely hall who did not 
regularly use it as a sitting-room. It had been so 
used in the time of the lord’s mother, but the 
present mistress of the house said it was a detest- 
able custom and used a suite of rooms instead — a 
morning-room out of which was her boudoir and out 
of which again was the library. 

“ Comfe into the library,” she said hospitably — 
“ You cannot be dusty with such a short journey. 
Tea is in full swing and Mr. Carrington has promised 
us a banjo performance presently.” 

So Mrs. Trafford went with Lady Lucifer into 
the pleasantly warm and well-lighted library, and 
Julia followed less quickly with Stephen Howard, 


A VISIT TO MATCHAM! 


83 


who had not met her for three days and was quite 
overjoyed to see her again. Nearly all the guests 
were there, and they seemed quite"? crowd of people. 
Mrs. Markham smiled and made room for Mrs. 
Trafford beside her. 

“ Come and sit by me, Mrs. Trafford, do,” she 
said. “You are just in time to hear this wonderful 
banjo. Mr. Carrington is really quite a genius at 
it. I tell him he ought to go about the streets and 
sing all the time. He would make quite a 
fortune.” 

She was a very gay little woman, and came out 
as Mrs. Trafford had not thought it possible for her 
to do. Of course it was gaiety of a very gentle order, 
for Mrs. Bob, as everyone in the house seemed 
to call her, was the least noisy person possible. 

“ You know there are to be great doings here 
this week,” she said to Mrs. Trafford — “ a lot of 
people to dinner to-night — a big lunch at Sir Simon 
D’Angler’s to-morrow. A ball here in the evening. 
A ball at Plackington the next night and so on all 
the week. I feel like a school-girl just coming 
out.” 

“ And you will look like it,” said Mrs. Trafford, 
smiling. 

“ Well, I hope so,” said Mrs. Bob, simply — “ I 
have got some of the loveliest dresses you ever saw, 
and I’ve been hard at work all the morning cleaning 
my diamonds.” 

« Ah ! you like to do them yourself,” said Mrs . 
Trafford. 


6 * 


84 


MRS. ROB. 


“ Oh no, I don’t,” rejoined Mrs. Bob quickly, 
“ but I am here without a maid. I have the best 
maid in all the world, but yesterday morning she 
had a telegram to say that her mother was dying 
and she must go at once if she wanted to see her- 
alive again, so, of course, she had to fly off and 
leave me to get on as best I could. And the very 
last thing she said was — ‘ Oh, Ma’am, if I’d only 
taken your diamonds in to be cleaned at a jeweller’s 
instead of doing them myself.’ But,” Mrs. Bob 
added — “ when you are strange to a place you don’t 
care to trust your diamonds to anybody but yourself 
do you ? ” 

Mrs. Trafford laughed merrily — c< I don’t know I 
am sure. I haven’t got any diamonds except’ one' 
or two little ornaments that would be quite safe 
with anybody.” 

“ Well, I have some rather nice diamonds,” said 
Mrs. Bob modestly — and added with a meaning look, 
“ You see I haven’t any daughters, Mrs. Trafford.” 

“ And you would like children ? ” Mrs. Trafford 
asked. 

The other caught her breath in a sharp sigh that 
was almost a sob. “ Oh ! if you knew how I long 
to have a dear little child of my own — of my very 
own. I had one once,” she went on sadly — “ but 
she only lived a fortnight — I had no joy of her. 
And how gladly I would give my diamonds, my 
everything except Bob, to have a little child to live, 
I could not tell you. It is a great want in one’s life 
to be childless,” 


A VISIT TO MATCHAM! 


85 


“ Perhaps by and by ” Mrs. Trafford began. 

“ I fear not — it is more than eight years since my 
little babe was taken. Ah well, I try to believe 
it is for the best — I try to believe it.” 

Mrs. Trafford’s kindly heart ached for the poor 
soul who bad lost her one little child and bad 
found that diamonds did not help to fill the void 
which the babe of a fortnight old had left behind it. 
She was so sorry for her — and the conversation of 
ten minutes had made her understand what had 
seemed before to be so strange, had explained away 
the sadness in the fair face, and the shadow which 
seemed always to settle down upon her eyes when' 
the smiles had died away. 

Yet ten minutes later Mrs. Bob was laughing 
heartily at Mr. Carrington’s song and you might 
have thought that she had not a trouble in the 
world. 

However, when the song was finished, she got up 
from her chair. “ I am going off — well, not exactly 
to dress, but to see after my things and have a 
quiet time. By-the-bye, I am next door to you, so 
I can show you your room if you want to go.” 

“ I will, thanks,” Mrs. Trafford replied. 

As they went to the door, Mrs. Bob stopped 
beside Lady Lucifer’s chair — “ I am going to show 
Mrs. Trafford the way, Violet,” she said. 

“ Oh ! — you are next to each other. Do, dear,” 
said Lady Lucifer. “ Stay, I will come up with you 
myself.” 

“ No, don’t,” cried Mrs. Bob. 


86 


MRS. BOB. 


“ Oh ! Mrs. Markham will show me 99 began 

Mrs. Trafford. 

“ My dear, I am coming,” Lady Lucifer answered 
— “ I want to see what gorgeous 6 confection ’ you 
are going to dazzle us with to-night.” 

44 Nothing very gorgeous,” Mrs. Bob answered 
with a laugh. “ Only a plain white gown.” 

“Is that so? Now, Mrs. Trafford, this is your 
room and your daughter’s is out of it. And you 
will ring for anything you want, won’t you ? One 
of my women will come to see if you want any 
help.” 

44 Oh ! we shall not need much help, thanks,” Mrs. 
Trafford replied. “ You see we are used to doing 
without a maid.” 

“ Well, as you feel inclined,” Lady Lucifer said. 
“ I hope you will be comfortable. We think the 
rooms on this side the pleasantest in the house. 
Well, I want to see this ‘ confection.* Will you 
come, Mrs. Trafford ? ” 

Mrs. Trafford, of course, said that she would and 
the three ladies went off like three school-girls into 
Mrs. Bob’s apartment. 

The “ confection ” lay on the couch, and as Mrs. 
Bob had truly said it was a plain white gown, and 
as Lady Lucifer said “ What a plain white gown.” 
It was of satin of that peculiarly rich and sheeny 
beauty which bears being made up with little or no 
trimming. There were some exquisite crystal 
arrangements on the bodice and set round the 
apologies for sleeves and the whole was as both her 


A VISIT TO MATCH AM 1 


87 


ladyship and Mrs. TrafFord said in the same breath 
— “ lovely.” 

“ What are you going to wear with it, Maimie ? ” 
Lady Lucifer asked. 

“ Just a few ornaments,” answered Mrs. Bob. 

“ Yes, but what kind of ornaments ? I want to 
see your ornaments,” Lady Lucifer cried — then 
turned to Mrs. Trafford — “ would you believe it ? 
This little woman has been here three days and I 
have never been in her bedroom yet. I have never 
had time to come for a chat at night even, and we 
always used to do that, didn’t we, Maimie ? ” 

“ In Queensland,” said Mrs. Bob. 

Lady Lucifer gave a sigh. u Ah ! yes, one has 
time to live in Queensland — here, scarcely to breathe. 
However, now I haye half an hour to spare and I 
want to know whether your diamonds are better 
than mine or not. Well, of course, they are better 
in one way whether they are worth more or not, for 
yours are your own, while most of mine are family 
jewels.” 

Thus urged Mrs. Bob went to a leather-covered 
box of very ordinary appearance and began to un- 
fasten the straps — then the corner fell off and 
disclosed a stout basket — she lifted the lid of that 
and took out an iron-bound box which fitted within 
the basket — “It’s an unconventional affair,” said 
Mrs. Bob, as she felt in her pocket for the key — 
“ but we flatter ourselves it does not look like a 
jewel-box.” 

“ It does not,” said her hostess. 


88 


MRS. BOB. 


Then she turned the entire contents out for the 
benefit of the two ladies- — and what a collection it 
was. ’ The ornaments were almost entirely of 
diamonds but there was one exception an enormous 
butterfly formed of a large pigeon’s blood ruby, with 
a single pearl for the head, emerald eyes and wide 
spreading diamond wings. Lady Lucifer picked it 
out from among the glittering collection — “ My 
dear, wear that to-night — it will look lovely with 
that dead wdiite gown.” 

“Yes, I will wear it,” said Mrs. Bob. 

“ I never saw anything so lovely in my life,” ex- 
claimed Mrs. Traffbrd — “there are so many, and 
they are all so large and beautiful. If they were 
mine I should never be able to sleep for wondering 
if they were safe.” 

“Oh yes, you would soon get used to that,” 
Mrs. Bob replied. “I used to feel a little nervous 
in India and on board ship, but I kept the shabby 
old basket in sight and everybody thought it was 
bonnets — I always called it my bonnet-box,” she 
ended smiling. 

“ My dear,” said Lady Lucifer — “ I yield you the 
palm. Mine cannot come anywhere near them. I 
always said you were the luckiest girl I ever knew, 
always.” 

Mrs. Bob smiled and began putting the cases back 
into the box, laying aside on the table such orna- 
ments as she wished to wear that evening. Then 
she packed up the basket again and threw a shawl 
carelessly over it. “ There,” she said, “ it is quite 


A VISIT TO MATCHAM! 89 

safe. Nobody would ever dream there was anything 
valuable in that.” 

All this did not leave Mrs. Trafford too much 
time in which to get ready for dinner. She went 
back to her room where she found Julia already 
nearly dressed. 

“ Why, Mother ! ” said she, “ where have you 
been?” 

“ I have been in Mrs. Markham’s bedroom, my 
dear, looking at her jewels — I have seen jewels 
before,” she added, “ but never anything like hers.” 

Julia was too happy, however, to be much im- 
pressed by anybody’s jewels, no matter how costly 
or beautiful. 

“ Are they good ? ” she said carelessly. 

“ Exquisite,” said Mrs. Trafford with decision. 

However, when Julia half an hour later saw Mrs. 
Bob walk into the drawing-room, with her dead 
white satin dress, the big butterfly playing on her left 
shoulder, and three large stars adorning the bodice 
beneath it, which in their turn caught up and held 
in place a lovely necklace of large single stones, 
she felt indifferent no longer, but looked at her with 
undisguised admiration and caught herself wondering 
whether she would ever be able to adorn herself in 
like fashion. 

I wonder is there any woman in all the world who 
does not really like diamonds ? I once knew a man 
who said he detested them, and I have heard that 
same man tell a lady that her diamonds were ex- 
quisite. Julia that evening, turned to Stephen 


90 


MRS. BOB. 


Howard and said, “How delightful your sister 
looks.” 

“ Yes, she does look rather nice,” he answered in 
true brotherly fashion — “that is a nice frock she’s 
got on.” 

“ And her diamonds are lovely,” said Julia. 

“ Do you like diamonds ? ” he enquired. 

“ I love them,” she said promptly, at which he 
laughed and said how odd it was, ladies were all 
the same on that subject. 

“ Yes, I believe we are,” said she laughing too. 

It was a large dinner, of more than forty people 
indeed — and Julia went in with Stephen and enjoyed 
herself oh ! so much. Of course the evening seemed 
to go like magic and it was quite with surprise that 
she realised that the guests were quickly saying 
good night. As the last one disappeared Mrs. Bob 
moved to where Lady Lucifer was standing. “ I’m 
so tired to-night, Violet,” she said, “ I am going to 
bed. Good night.” 

“ Good night, dear,” said Lady Lucifer. “ But 
cannot I do anything? Will you have anything 
sent up to your room ? ” 

Mrs. Bob fairly laughed. “ Not a thing, dear — 
I am tired, that is all,” she replied. “ I will just 
steal off before you have those wonderful card-tricks.” 

So away she went and then Mr. Carrington, who 
was a young man highly popular in Society, a sort 
of Jack-of-all-amusements, began to show off his 
skill at various card-tricks — yet scarcely had he 
began when the door was hurriedly opened and Mrs. 


A VISIT TO MATCHAM! 


91 


Bob came running in with a scared white face, 
scarcely indeed less white than her satin gown. 
“ Oh ! Bob — Violet,” she gasped. 

Her hostess and her husband both jumped up. 
“ What is it ? ” asked one. “ Are you ill ? ” said the 
other. 

“My box, my jewels,” she cried. “They are 
gone, all gone, stolen ! ” 

“ Good Heavens ! ” cried Markham, then dashed 
up the stairs followed by all the panic stricken 
company. 

“ Oh ! Maimie, what shall we do ? ” cried Lady 
Lucifer in great distress. 

Mrs. Bob began to laugh in a very suspicious 
way as if very little was needed to send her into 
hysterics. “I — I — ” she began — then pointed to 
the place where the box had stood and to the open 
window. 

It was not more than two or three inches open, 
but already it was too late in the year for bedroom 
windows, or indeed for the matter of that any 
windows, to stand open without some special reason 
— there was, however, a very special reason for this 
window standing open, and with an exclamation Bob 
Markham dashed across the room and flung it to the 
top, thrusting his head out as if it was likely that 
the thief or thieves would be crouching in the 
Hurels below. 

“ They have actually left the ladder against the 
wall,” he said to Lord Lucifer who had followed 
him. 


92 


MRS. BOB. 


“ What is to be done ? ” Lord Lucifer answered 
with a question. “Here Thomas, run down and 
turn some of the men out. Let us have the police 
such as they are at once. And let Joe saddle Bonny 
Bess and drive off to the station at Blankhampton at 
once and tell the police there. Let him drive like 
steam.” 

“ It won’t be any good,” said Bob Markham 
shaking his head. “ I’ve noticed that jewel robberies 
in England are never found out.. Maimie, my dear, 
you will have your shine a bit diminished for the 
dance to-morrow, and I doubt if I shall ever be able 
to find such jewels again for you.” 

“My dear Markham, I am so sorry,” Lucifer 
began, when Bob stopped him. 

“No, don’t say any more about it. It might 
have happened in anybody^ house before or after, as 
easily in our own as in any other. And who knows 
— we may get them back in no time. Anyway, you 
must not blame yourselves in any way whatever, 
and by-the-bye, hadn’t you better look after your 
wife’s jewels ? ” 

Thus his attention turned to danger at home. 
Lord Lucifer went off to his wife’s room followed by 
all the crowd of guests and servants, but' Lady 
Lucifer’s jewels were untouched, evidently nobody 
had been in that part of the house. “Poor little 
thing, it is only you who have suffered,” cried Lady 
Lucifer tenderly. 

Mrs. Bob tried to laugh but only, succeeded in 
looking very chokey — then she put up her hand and 


A VISIT TO MATCHAM! 


93 


touched the lovely butterfly upon her shoulder. “ I 
have my butterfly left, Violet,” she said, the tears 
springing into her eyes, “ and but for you I should 
not have dreamt of putting more than a little 
ornament or two on to-night. You have saved me 
these anyway.” 

“ I am glad,” cried Lady Lucifer. “ Why, these 
must be almost the most valuable of all your 
jewels.” 

“Oh! no — there was a collet necklace worth as 
much as all these put together,” Mrs. Bob replied — 
then exclaimed — “ Why, Bob — what is it ? ” 

“ Somebody has been in here,” he said, from the 
window where he was standing. “See here is a 
footmark on the white paint — there a scratch and 
the window is half an inch open.” 

“ Then they were disturbed,” Lady Lucifer cried. 

“ I don’t know — they left the ladder at my wife’s 
window. I should say they came here first. Have 
you looked inside your cases, Lady Lucifer ? ” 

“ No!” 

It was but the work of a moment to fly at the 
jewel-box and tear open the leather jewel-cases 
within — and only the work of another moment to 
realize that they were all empty. Lady Lucifer 
gave a shrill scream. 

“ They have taken them all — all — all — and I shall 
never get any more. Oh ! what shall I do ? ” 

In an instant the house was in ten times the 
uproar than had been caused by the loss of Mrs. 
Bob’s jewels. It is so easy to be calm and collected 


MRS. BOB. 


94 

and tender over the troubles of other folk, but now 
it became Mrs. Bob’s office to soothe and pet her 
hostess, who was screaming and crying, threatening 
every moment to go into violent hysterics. 

Still, for the present at least, all the screaming 
and crying in the world would not give any clue to 
the missing jewels, rather retarded operations as a 
matter of fact, for Lord Lucifer had to attend to 
his wife, or to be particular, to stand looking on 
helplessly while others did so, when he might have 
been thinking of something which would help the 
police when they reached Matcham. 

Somehow not a soul in the house seemed to think 
of going to bed that night until the arrival of the 
police^ As. soon as Lady Lucifer was collected 
enough to do so, they all went downstairs into the 
hall, and there they sat in a circle about the newly 
piled up fire, listening for the first sound of wheels 
along the avenue. 

44 This is simply dreadful,” exclaimed the master 
of Matcham, after about a quarter of an hour of 
doleful looks and dismal stories — 44 if we have had a 
thumping loss, Markham, we may as well try to 
support ourselves under it. Wilson, bring out some 
champagne — the ’84.” 

44 Yes, my Lord,” said Wilson. 

After this they all seemed to gather up heart a 
little, and the entire company drank a bumper to 
the safe return of the jewels. 

44 Don’t feel so bad about it now, do you, Vi ? ** 
said Lucifer to his wife. 


IN STATU QUO. 


95 


“ Yes — I feel pretty bad,” she answered. 

“ I feel dreadful,” put in Mrs. Bob, 44 but I never 
can go into a rage and I can’t cry — I can only choke 
a little ; so I never get the^credit of being really in 
trouble about anything.” 

" Never mind, little woman,” said her husband 
kindly. “ We will try and scrape a few more 
trinkets together for you somehow or other.” 

44 We’ll both do our best,” chimed in Lucifer 
looking at his wife. 


CHAPTER VIII. 

IN STATU QUO. 

“The eclipsing of another’s sun 'will not make ours shine the 
brighter.” — Anon. 

“ Thoughts deeper than all speech, 

Feeling deeper than all thought.” 

— Cranch. 

Bob Markham was not very far out of it when he 
had said that in England jewel robberies are never 
found out, for it seemed as if there could be no un- 
ravelling of the mystery by which Matcham was 
surrounded and possessed. 

In due time the police came, and as well as they 
could investigated the scene of the burglary. They 
were shown the place where the old leather- covered 
basket had stood in Mrs. Markham’s bed-room, were 
given an accurate account of its contents and de- 
scription of the valuable ornaments which it had 


96 


MRS. BOB. 


contained. Then they examined the window and 
by the dim morning light went outside and exa- 
mined the ground below, found the ladder still 
standing against the wall and a square of bass — 
ordinary common gardener’s bass which had been 
used to put on the slightly damp ground behind the 
laurel-bushes, so that no impression might be left of 
tell-tale footmarks. The thieves had not, as gene- 
rally happens, left behind them a jemmy with its 
owner’s initials engraved thereon or a hat or any 
other clue which might lead to identification, no, 
the thief or thieves had accomplished the work 
quickly and deftly, and neatly too. 

Lady Lucifer’s room gave even fewer evidences 
of what had happened — the window had been found 
about an inch open, the sill was slightly marked and 
scratched, and the jewels were gone. 

And there for the present they seemed inclined 
to stick. Lord Lucifer offered a reward of five 
thousand pounds for the recovery of his wife’s jewels 
and Mr. Markham offered twice the sum for the 
restoration of his wife’s. Then, after a few hours, 
the box, basket, and leather cover which had con- 
tained the latter were found in a thick shrubbery 
not more than a couple of hundred yards from the 
mansion itself and even all the cases were found 
within it. 

The box was examined and taken back to the 
house and Mrs. Bob was summoned. “ Why,” she 
said — “they have left every case— yes, every one. 
What nice thieves ! This one,” she added, taking 


IN STATU QUO. 


97 


out a lttle case from among its fellows, <e contained 
the locket which had my dear little child’s hair in 
it. Why — ” and then she tore it open with eager 
hands. “ Oh ! — oh ! they have left it to me — they 
have left it to me. Oh ! how kind of them — how 
good of them ! I don’t care now if we never get the 
others back again.” And then she began to kiss 
the locket passionately, until the tears stood in 
more than one of the eyes which were looking on. 

Lady Lucifer with marvellous rapidity got used 
to the idea of her loss and even discussed what she 
should do for suitable jewelry supposing that her 
own should not be traced. 

si I must have jewelry, you know,” she said down 
the length of the breakfast* table to her husband on 
the second morning after the robbery — “ if it is 
only to wear at Court.” 

“ Well,” said he — “ if you get your own back 
again, you needn’t trouble about any more and if 
you don’t get your own, you must spin the five 
thousand I have offered for the reward as far as you 
can to provide yourself with new.” 

But the days went by and there was no trace of 
the jewels. The various entertainments of the 
week came off in due course and Lady Lucifer made 
the best show she could with the jewels that she 
had worn at dinner on that eventful night, while 
Mrs. Bob with her stars and her gorgeous butterfly, 
and her beautiful single-stone necklace, did not 
give the idea of having lost a single thing. 

She was a sweet soul, for on the evening after 

7 


98 


MRS. BOR. 


the robbery when everybody was dressing for 
dinner, which was to be followed by a ball, she left 
her room and went to her hostess’s door at which 
she knocked. 

“ Can I speak to Lady Lucifer, Mawson,” she said 
when the maid opened it. 

“ I think so, ma’am,” Mawson answered.. 

“ Yes, yes, come in,” cried her ladyship, who was 
just fastening the lace of her bodice with two of her 
husband’s diamond breast-pins. 

“ Violet,” said Mrs. Bob, “ you won’t be offended 
with me ? I’ve brought you this to smarten you 
up a little,” and she held out the single stone neck- 
lace that I have mentioned before. 

“ Oh ! my dear, I couldn’t,” Lady Lucifer cried. 
“ I really couldn’t. Put it on yourself, Maimie, dear, 
and bless you for the sweet thought.” 

“ But I never wear a necklace round my throat,” 
Mrs. Bob urged. “ And you always do, so I know 
you won’t feel properly dressed unless you feel you 
have one on. And nobody will know — it is exactly 
like the one you lost, you know. 

“Well, it is sweet of you,” exclaimed Lady Lucifer 
waveringly. 

* “ Do, dear,” Mrs. Bob went on in her most per- 
suasive accents, and then as Lady Lucifer still 
looked doubtful, she put her arms up and clasped 
the pretty glittering bauble around her friend’s fair 
throat. “ Now you look like yourself,” she said 
fondly. “ And I am smart enough with these,” 
touching the ornaments in her own breast. When 


IN STATU QUO. 


99 


she had gone away, Lady Lucifer opened the 
door into her husband’s dressing-room and went in. 

“Lucifer,” she said to her husband — “ Maimie 
insists as she got rather better treated than I 
did, that I shall share her luck by wearing this to- 
night. It is exactly like my own, you know. I 
hope you don’t mind ? ” 

“Not a bit,” he answered — “that is to say I don’t 
mind your wearing her necklace. I should if it be- 
longed to anybody else.” 

“ That is all right,” she said much relieved, for 
Lady Lucifer was a good wife and would not have 
done anything to vex her husband for the world. 
“ Isn’t it sweet of her ? ” 

“ Yes, she’s a nice little woman,” returned Lucifer, 
who liked Mrs. Bob well enough, but was not 
enthusiastic about her or any other woman beside 
his wife. 

It must be owned that the great robbery did a 
great deal for our friend Mrs. Trafford. *You see 
having lost nothing herself, having indeed nothing 
of that kind to lose, she was left in possession of a 
very calm clear mind. Never was any woman in 
all the world so tenderly sympathetic as was she to 
the two ladies who had been bereft of nearly all 
their aids to beauty. Some women in her place 
could not have helped feeling some little satisfaction 
in the misfortune of their better endowed friends 
(which is a crib from. Rochefoucauld, who has put it 
in infinitely better words), but Mrs. Trafford had 
no such feeling in her heart. She was really and 


100 


MRS. BOB. 


genuinely sorry and she expressed as much many 
times in the course of the day both to Mrs. Bob and 
to her hostess. 

“I can’t tell you how sympathetic Mrs. Trafford 
has been,” Lady Lucifer said to her husband while 
she still lingered in his dressing-room. “ Most 
women would be uncommonly glad when another 
woman had lost all her diamonds, but she is just as 
sorry and feeling about it as if she had lost them 
herself.” 

“ Yes — very nice woman,” said Lucifer, struggling 
with his tie. 

“Those Mauleverers may turn up their stupid noses 
at her as much as ever they like,” her ladyship went 
on, “ as much as ever they like. It’s so silly, they 
alway pretend they won’t know her on any account. 
Such nonsense ; why she’s just as good as they are, 
or if not quite so well-born, a great deal pleasanter 
to know. At all events Colonel Urquliart didn’t 
want to marry one of them, or Colonel anybody else 
either.” 

At this point Lord Lucifer ruined his fourth tie. 

Damn the thing,” he burst out — then looked at 
his wife. “ Really, Violet- darling, I beg your 
pardon, but it is awfully aggravating. I’ve no time 
to lose and my fingers seem all thumbs to-night. 
'Pon my word,” he ended, “I shall give up wear- 
ing these ties altogether. I shall take to those 
things that hitch on behind.” 

“I should if I were you,” said her ladyship 
calmly, “ they would be less trouble and you could 


m STATU QUO. 


101 


get them tied a great deal better for you, instead 
of wasting half a dozen ties for one evening you 
would hitch one on as you call it and you would 
look better turned out altogether.” 

Lord Lucifer nearly exploded ; why the idea was 
preposterous and he had only suggested it in the 
exasperation of the moment, expecting as a matter 
of course that his wife would at once utterly re- 
pudiate the bare idea of his ever degrading himself 
by wearing a tie that was ready made and would 
hitch on behind, repudiate it with indignation and 
scorn. In his disgust at her reply, he took up a 
fresh tie and adjusted it into as neat and exquisite 
a bow as was ever turned out by the fingers of 
man, and when he saw the result, his wrath died 
out and he was his own good-humoured self once 
again. 

“ Ah ! well, well, I think I need not take to made- 
up things while I can tie a bow like that,” he 
said surveying his handiwork proudly. “ But Vi, 
hadn’t you better be going ? It’s getting awfully 
late.” 

“ Yes, but I am quite ready,” she answered. 

She had been getting into her gloves as she 
talked and now began to button the second one. 
“ I shall introduce the Mauleverers to her to- 
night,” she said going on with their original con- 
versation. 

“ Oh ! are they coming ? ” 

“ Why yes. One couldn’t leave them out, you 
know and of course skittish young things like 


102 


MKS. BOB. 


they are would not miss a chance of a dance. Is 
it likely ? ” 

“ Mrs. Tra fford won’t thank you.” 

“ No, perhaps not — but she will bear it to oblige 
me, I know.” 

Thus charitably determined Lady Lucifer went 
down to dinner, nor did she when her opportunity 
came, show that she had forgotten her intentions. 
For when she found herself near to the Mauleverers 
and by a happy chance to Mrs. Trafford, she said 
suddenly — “ Oh ! by the bye, Miss Mauleverer, I want 
to introduce you to Mrs. Trafford. You are neigh- 
bours and ought to know one another.” 

Miss Mauleverer thus cornered, had no choice 
but to give Mrs. Trafford her stiffest bow (and oh ! 
it was stiff — a poker wasn’t in it with that act of 
courtesy) and speak a word to her. 

Mrs. Trafford secure in her position as the mother- 
in-law of her dear children’s husbands and in the 
fact that Julia was at that very moment gliding by 
them in Stephen Howard’s arms, was not very 
cordial, not indeed more than barely civil, and when 
Lady Lucifer perceived as much she was so over- 
flowing with joy that she could have taken the 
little widow right into her arms and hugged her. 

Miss Mauleverer had not expected this move, she 
had expected her to be more gushing, more over- 
whelmed with the honour thus put upon her. In 
truth she was so taken aback by the quiet dignity 
of Mrs. Trafford’s demeanour that she caught herself 
something about the badness of the roads 


IN STATU QUO. 


103 


between Matcham and Blankhampton. Now this 
was Mrs. Trafford’s chance, nor did she lose it. 

“ Really,” she said sweetly, “ are the roads very 
bad?” 

“ Oh ! very bad,” answered the spinster in a 
superior tone. “ Then I suppose you came by train 
— it is a long drive from Blankhampton.” 

“No — we are staying in the house,” returned 
Mrs. Trafford very quietly. 

After this the spinster judiciously melted away, 
and Mrs. Trafford was left in undoubted possession 
of the field. Lady Lucifer who had been at 
hand all the time though she had apparently been 
talking to other people, had not missed a word, and 
as Mrs. Trafford moved away after an instant’s 
pause in quite a different direction to Miss Maul- 
everer, she caught her hand for a moment as she 
passed. Mrs. Trafford turned and smiled at her in 
return but spoke not a word. Indeed there was no 
need of words for without them each understood 
the other perfectly — it was a harmony without 
words. 

And during all this time Julia was in Elysium ! 
She had a fresh white gown on, and carried a beau- 
tiful posy of white flowers tied with long white 
ribbon streamers, which had been sent up to her 
room with Mr. Stephen Howard’s compliments. She 
had his initials S. H. set down on her programme 
against more dances than I think it would be quite 
honourable of me to mention, and she had heard 
some one say as she passed — “ Who is the charming 


104 


MRS. BOB. 


girl with the tall fair man ? ” so what more could be 
wanted to fill the cup of her happiness until it over- 
flowed ? Well, to be strictly accurate — only one 
thing, and that she knew now would come sooner 
or later, probably before many days had gone by. 


CHAPTER IX. 

ON THE BRINK, 

“ To know 

That which before us lies in daily life 
Is the prime wisdom.” — M ilton. 

It would take more space than I have to give were 
I fully to describe that week at Matcham, the ball 
at Plackington, the big dinner at Lord Mallinbro’s, 
the bazaar which Lady Lucifer opened, the little 
friendly dance the next evening at Matcham to 
which only the very nicest people were asked and 
for which no formal invitations were sent out. I 
think perhaps that most of them enjoyed that 
evening more than all the rest of the week, the 
floor was in perfect condition, there was plenty of 
room, the supper was charming and the wine the 
best that was in the cellar. Julia did not dance 
much, only three waltzes with Stephen Howard, wdio 
waltzed divinely — (Julia’s adjective, not mine) — 
but she sat out a good deal and Stephen sat with 
her, and really it was all one to them whether they 
were dancing or resting. 

But still he did not take the plunge and propose 


ON THE BRINK. 


105 


and on the 28th Julia and her mother went back to 
St. Eve’s much as they had come, that is to say 
with no settled and definite change looming in the 
near future for either of them. 

Nevertheless Mrs. Trafford was perfectly satisfied 
and Julia was amazingly happy and the admirable 
Cox perceived that all had gone well with them. 

They found lying on the hall table the letters 
which that morning’s post had brought to the house, 
a couple of invitations, a bill, several circulars and 
a long letter from Lady Staunton. 

“ Oh ! here is a letter from Laurie,” said Mrs. 
Trafford, and going upstairs into the drawing-room 
she sat down by the fire and began to read it, com- 
menting upon it at intervals. 

“ Oh ! they are to have their leave from the 1st 
of November,” she said first. 

“I expected that,” said Julia unfastening her 
coat. 

“And Laurie wants to know if we want them 
here during their leave — if we' want them here,” 
Mrs. Trafford repeated, at which Julia laughed 
aloud. 

“ Oh !— or will we go and meet them in Town — ? 
Oh ! that is quite impossible, dear. I really should 
not care to leave home just now.” 

Julia blushed right rosy red. “Well, I think it 
would be rather a pity,” she returned. 

« Oh ! quite out of the question,” Mrs. Trafford 
said with decision —then took up the letter again 
and went on reading. 


106 


MRS. BOB, 


“ Laurie says they will either come to us to meet 
us in Town or come to us later, but the old ladies 
have made a special point of asking them for Christ- 
mas, and are going to ask us too — Oh ! ” and there 
she stopped short again and looked with doubtful 
eyes at her daughter. 

S6 There is time enough to settle all that,” said 
Julia. “ I should tell Laurie to suit her own con- 
venience about coming here any time between this 
and their visit to the old ladies. It is far the best 
to leave it to them and then they will fit things to 
suit themselves.” 

“ You are right, dear,” said Mrs. Trafford — “ then 
when I have had a cup of tea I will write to Laurie 
at once.” 

So she did. She had already found time to write 
a graphic description of the jewel-robbery whilst at 
Matcham, and to-day she spoke of it again. (i I do 
not believe,” she said, “ that either dear Lady 
Lucifer or that sweet little Mrs. Bob — as everybody 
calls her — will ever see one of all those beautiful 
jewels again and, my dear, I assure you when I 
think of the heaps of exquisite diamonds that Mrs. 
Bob showed us not four hours before the robbery 
took place, my heart positively aches for her. Lady 
Lucifer’s jewels you have seen for yourself. She 
has nothing left now but three or four little 
brooches which are paltry compared with what she 
has lost. 

“ About oui coming to Town — my dear child, it 
is out of the question altogether. In fact it is im- 


/ 


ON THE BRINK. 


107 


perative that we remain at home for the present. I 
am sure that you and Anthony will enjoy yourselves 
very much better by yourselves, and you know that 
you will both be heartily welcome here at any time 
and for any time that suits you best during your 
leave. About the visit you mention to Anthony’s 
aunts — you go, of course, dear, but at present J ulia 
and I would rather not say anything. I rather 
fancy Julia will have other plans by that time. Mr. 
Stephen Howard still continues to pay her the 
closest attention, in fact, at Matcham they were 
together morning, noon, and night. He sent her 
the most exquisite bouquets for the three dances 
we were at and corsage flowers for each other 
night. So you understand, dear, for the present I 
would rather not commit myself one way or the 
other. 

“By-the-bye, you say neither Julia nor I have 
told you what Mr. Howard is like ! He is very tall 
and strong-looking, very fair and handsome. Has 
lovely blue eyes, and is one of the nicest young 
men I have ever known in my life. In worldly 
respects he is everything that can be desired and 
Julia seems to like him very much, though she has 
not actually said so.” 

This letter Mrs. Trafford closed and sent off to 
her youngest daughter, without showing it to Julia. 

Julia, however, did not notice the omission and 
when Mrs. Trafford went back to the drawing-room, 
she found her sitting comfortably by the fire toast- 
ing her feet on the fender. She put down the 


108 


MRS. BOB. 


book which she was reading and looked at her 
mother. 

“ Did you notice that Mrs. Lovelace was not at 
the ball at Matcham, nor yet the one at Placking- 
ton ? ” she asked. 

“ Yes. But I heard some one ask Miss 
Mauleverer where she was and why she was not 
there and she said that she had gone up to Town 
for a few days.” 

“Ah! I see,” said Julia. “Well, it was better 
that she wasn’t there for Captain Legard went on 
awfully with Pamela Winstanley and Mrs. Lovelace 
would have been furious the whole time.” 

“ Captain Legard seems to be devoting himself to 
Pamela,” Mrs. Trafford remarked. 

“Oh! utterly.” 

“ Though she is hardly the girl I should have 
thought would attract him. However, you never 
can tell how these affairs come about. But she is 
so— so old-fashioned looking although she is cer- 
tainly pretty; and he is so — well, so ” 

“ He puts on tremendous side,” said v Julia 
quickly. 

“ Yes — though I scarcely quite meant that. But 
he is so very dragoonisli — a lady killer sort of a man, 
always with his head poking forward and his eyes 
roving about as if he was looking for fresh worlds to 
conquer. And for him to be apparently going in 
seriously for Pamela Winstanley, who is already a 
little old-maidish in spite of her slang, is very odd, 
to sav the least of it,” 


ON THE BKINK. 


109 


“ Yes,” answered Julia dreamily — “ these things 
are generally very odd. I think life altogether is 
odd.’* 

Well, the next day quite a small crowd of people 
turned up at the pretty house in St. Eve’s and Mrs. 
Trafford perceived that she had not suffered in social 
importance by having made one of the house-party 
at Matcham. 

Among her visitors was Mr. Evelyn Grabrielli, 
who was looking very ill. He had three days pre- 
viously received a favour (anonymously), consisting 
of various articles of toilette utility together with 
divers remarks concerning his personal vanity such 
as had made him unutterably wretched. 

This production he had traced to two ladies, 
sisters, who were on the outside fringe of the Parish 
set and were very objectionable people all round. 
Indeed to be quite accurate I cannot truthfully say 
that they were in a set of any kind. I never saw 
anybody speaking to them or walking with them. 
But they went duly and truly to the Parish services, 
where they were in the world but not of the world. 
And if you think that an odd thing to say of two 
ladies in such circumstances, I must tell you that 
the Parish set comprised “ the world ” of the ancient 
city. 

Mrs. Trafford noticed in a moment that some- 
thing was wrong with him. He was not wearing 
a single ring on his lady-like hands — incredible 
as it may seem to those w T ho know him — and 
his face had a sweet and anxious look as if his 


110 


MRS. BOB. 


self-inflicted soourgings had proved too severe for 
him. 

Mrs. Trafford was very kind and tender with him, 
she made him sit in the cosy chair by the fire and 
was sure he was far from well. Was it the relaxing 
air of Blankhampton ? Without doubt it was relax- 
ing, the little woman told him. 

Now Mr. Grabrielli could scarcely tell the sym- 
pathetic little widow that two vulgar woman had 
troubled themselves to send him a small quantity 
of rouge and a piece of cotton-wool without giving 
him the opportunity of thanking them for the 
attention, so he had to dissemble somewhat, to say 
that he was not feeling very well, that he had been 
a little worried about parish affairs for some days, 
and should be really glad to have a few day’s 
change. 

Mrs. Trafford little thought how truly he spoke 
when he said that parish affairs had worried him. 
She naturally thought of services, rehearsals — no — 
no — what am I talking about, I mean practices, 
choir-school and so forth. If only she had known 
about that rouge and the cotton-wool ! She had 
always had a lurking suspicion that the Reverend 
Evelyn had liked her younger flower better than 
they had any of them thought at the time of 
Laura’s marriage and she set down his pale face and 
distressed looks partly to that cause. If she had but 
known that the horrid woman who held the stall 
just below her own, was at the bottom of it all, well, 
I think Mrs. Trafford would have felt inclined to lay 


ON THE BRINK. 


Ill 


the whole story before the Dean and to use all her 
influence to get pressure put upon her to resign her 
holding. 

Then very soon Pamela Winstanley came in with 
her nose in the air and all her family pride freshly 
starched. And Pamela brought news. 

“ The regiment has got orders to be off at once,” 
she said and both Mrs. Trafford and Julia noticed 
that she spoke in a possessive way as if the regiment 
in toto belonged to her. 

Going,” echoed Mrs. Trafford. “ My dear 
Pamela, you surely don’t mean the 32nd — the 
Dragoons.” 

“ Yes, the 32nd,” answered Pamela — “ Yes, they 
are off to Ireland in a fortnight from now.” 

“ But why ? ” Mrs. Trafford cried. “ They have 
been here such a short time and they expected to be 
here until spring twelve-month.” 

“I don’t know why,” replied Pamela — “ I only 
know that they have got their route and are going.” 

I do not know at this moment if I have told you 
that Pamela Winstanley and Julia were by way of 
being great friends, but nevertheless I must confess 
that Julia almost laughed aloud at Pamela’s army 
language, and at her pronunciation of the term 
“ route ” which she did in the most approved army 
fashion as if it was spelt with a W instead of a U. 

“ Who told you ? ” she asked. 

“ I heard it from Captain Legard this morning,” 
answered Pamela, quite as if Captain Legard 
belonged to her. 


112 


MRS. BOB. 


The two ladies heard and wondered, wondered if 
she and Captain Legard had come to an under- 
standing during the week of their absence ? 

“ What will Mrs. Lovelace say to their move ? ” 
said Julia, thinking that perhaps Pamela would be 
betrayed into imparting any further information that 
she might possess. 

Pamela stiffened herself until she began to look 
like a Mauleverer — “ Oh ! I don’t think it matters 
one way or the other what Mrs. Lovelace says,” she 
returned sharply. 

Julia laughed — “It is not so long since she had a 
good deal of say in Captain Legard’s affairs, Pamela,” 
she said quietly. 

“ Not since 1 came,” rejoined Pamela instantly. 

She had scarcely uttered the worifc when the 
admirable Cox showed Captain Legard into the 
room. 

“ You have heard our news ? ” he said as he 
greeted Mrs. Trafford. 

“ Yes. Miss Winstanley has just told us,” Mrs. 
Trafford answered. 

He turned quickly round. <c Ah ! how d’you do, 
Miss Winstanley ? ” he said holding out his hand. 
“ How did you hear it ? ” 

There was a moment’s silence — Miss Winstanley 
looked at him for that space of time with her eyes 
widely opened and her lips drawn apart. Then an 
angry flush swept across her fair face — “Why, I heard 
it from you,” she answered. 

For another moment there was silence again — 


ON THE BRINK. 


113 


then he laughed rather awkwardly. “ Oh ! to be 
sure, yes. I had forgotten that I had sent my man 
down to you with those books this morning,” he said 
with very well- assumed carelessness. 

They had all been standing but Mrs. Trafford sat 
down again and picked up her knitting. She was 
still at work on a crimson sock, but it was not the 
same — it was indeed the second of another pair. 
The little widow found it convenient to do a good 
deal of knitting — in the first place it was work that 
interested and amused her, work to whick^he could 
give, as suited her at the moment, the closest or the 
most lax attention. It was not expensive and the 
socks when finished, always made acceptable presents 
to her dear boys, as she generally called the husbands 
of her children, Laura and Madge. 

She gave the few inches of silken work the closest 
attention then, for she was not anxious that Pamela 
should see in her eyes the knowledge which she had 
just gained from Captain Legard’s remarks, remarks 
which had told her all too plainly that he had not 
the very smallest intention of anything serious 
coming about between the young lady and himself. 
She was really sorry that Pamela should have found 
them alone and thus have had the opportunity of 
giving herself little airs about the 32nd and Captain 
Legard. It was natural and yet it was so silly. 
Mrs. Trafford saw or thought that she saw so very 
clearly just w T hat had happened — that he had gone 
rather further with Mrs. Lovelace than he knew to 
be prudent, that like a cautious man anxious to 

8 


114 


MRS. BOB. 


avoid any unpleasantness with her husband, he had 
deliberately instituted a quarrel with her and had 
started a violent flirtation with Pamela Winstanley 
instead. And Pamela had been taken in by it, she 
had given herself little airs and had spoken of the 
regiment and the route to Mrs. Trafford in a tone as 
if they belonged to her. Mrs. Trafford was very sorry 
for Pamela Winstanley. 

Captain Legard, however, displayed an admirable 
self-possession which served to prevent any awkward- 
ness. He sat down again as Mrs. Trafford did so, 
and went on talking as if Pamela had never blushed 
and he had not tried to make the lady of the house 
believe that he had not had communication with the 
young lady already that day. 

“ It is a great bore leaving,” he said in disgusted 
accents, “ really a great bore. But it is always so 
with us. We are sent to a place and get to like it 
and as soon as that happens and we know a few 
people in it, we are sent off again somewhere else to 
begin it all over again.” 

“ Oh ! it is very tiresome, of course,” Mrs. Trafford 
agreed, “ though,” she added with a laugh, “ I be- 
lieve my two girls were glad to go. They both 
wanted to begin soldiering in downright good 
earnest and they felt that it was not proper soldier- 
ing till they went to a strange town where they 
didn’t know a soul.” 

Captain Legard laughed. " They will soon get 
tired of that,” he remarked. <e Of course, it isn’t so 
bad for us unmarried officers, but we find it bad 


ON THE BRINK. 


115 


enough, and married men very soon come to find 
the constant changes intolerable. For my part,” he 
added deliberately and looking steadily at Mrs. 
Trafford, “ I never find myself in the midst of a 
move that I do not feel thankful that I have no wife 
to be made uncomfortable too.” 

Mrs. Trafford coughed — “ Yes — yes,” she said 
nervously, for really she was getting quite nervous 
thinking of poor Pamela’s little airs and what this 
would mean to her — “ I have no doubt it is a very 
tiresome existence when once the glamour has worn 
of. But it is time we were thinking of tea. Will 
you ring the bell, Captain Legard ? ” 

To her great relief the door opened as she uttered 
the words and two ladies were shown in — Mrs. John 
Doughty and her daughter. Never perhaps had 
Mrs. Trafford been so thankful to see that particular 
lady in all her life before. She welcomed her with 
open arms and made her sit down beside her and as- 
sumed a confidential attitude which surprised while 
it gratified her visitor. Then the bells began to 
ring for evensong and Mr. Gabrielli went away, 
leaving Julia free to talk to Miss Florence Doughty, 
thus leaving Pamela and Captain Legard at liberty 
to explain the events of the past ten minutes if they 
chose to do so. 

But Captain Legard’^ keen eye had spied out 
Florence Doughty, who, if not an actually pretty 
girl, was very young, very fresh, plump, with a 
lovely rose and lily complexion and a wholesome 
capacity for open and innocent flirtation such as you 

8 * 


116 


MRS. BOB. 


only see in extreme youth. So instead of sitting 
down beside Pamela and soothing her wounded feel- 
ings, he strolled across to Julia and the youthful 
charmer and Julia had no choice but to introduce 
him. 

Thus Julia could only go over to Pamela, who was 
sitting quite near to the place where Cox usually 
set the tea table. Then Cox came in with the tray 
and Julia thanked Heaven that she would have 
something to do. She hardly dared look at Pamela ; 
but Pamela was proud if she was anything and after 
the first shock she pulled herself together most 
creditably. 

“ Not anything, thanks,” she said, when Julia 
passed her the cake-plate — “I have only just time 
for a cup of tea. Yes, I must be off to service, dear. 
Father likes us to go you know.” 

In less than five minutes she had said good-bye 
and had gone, Legard opened the door for her and 
she passed him with a brave “ Good-bye Captain 
Legard,” but never looked at him. Then he shut 
the door and came back to his seat again, picking 
up the thread of his conversation with Florence 
Doughty as if it had never been interrupted. 

They had scarcely settled down again when the 
door opened and Cox showed in another visitor, and 
to Julia’s surprise it was Stephen Howard. “ Oh ! 
is it you ? ” she said in astonishment — “ I thought 
you were going to London.” 

“I put off going,” he answered — “I am going 
to-morrow, probably.” 


ON THE BRINK. 


117 


Mrs. Trafford greeted him with pleasant familiar- 
ity and put out her left hand. 66 Julia will give you 
some tea,” she said kindly. “ No„ don’t give him 
that — let Cox bring some fresh.” 

Then she went on talking to Mrs. John Doughty, 
who being the daughter of a bishop and the wife of 
a lawyer of what I have heard very graphically 
called “ risen standing,” always felt that it behoved 
her to be very particular indeed about her position 
in Blankhampton society. At that moment Mrs. 
Doughty was very busy laying down the law to Mrs. 
Trafford about some people who had not long before 
come to the town and who, as they had a fairly large 
income a very large family of rather good-looking 
sons and daughters with a preponderance of the 
feminine over the masculine gender to the extent 
of nine to three, were just at that time an object of 
considerable interest to the townspeople. In her 
heart Mrs. Doughty was of opinion that strangers 
and pilgrims ought not to be encouraged in Blank- 
hampton. There were then, as there always had 
been, more marriageable young women in Blank- 
hampton than Blankhampton knew how to provide 
for. Blankhampton, in fact, never bad adequately 
provided for her virgins, else Mrs. Doughty would 
never have stooped from her dignity as the daughter 
of an archdeacon (who afterwards became a bishop) 
to share the name and home of young John 
Doughty, the plasterer’s son. She could not, how- 
ever, in Mrs. Trafford’s own house, quite say as 
much a§ this to her, for Mrs. Trafford might possibly 


118 


MRS. BOB. 


have taken the hint as a personal one and have 
remembered it afterwards. But she did go as far 
as she safely could on that road, and said that she 
had heard these people were not very nice, that the 
girls were dreadfully loud in their dress, that the 
father was a morose and none too agreeable person 
who lived on his wife’s money which had all come 
from her first husband ; and she added that she did 
not think a woman could be really a nice woman 
who could persuade her husband to leave her every- 
thing he possessed without providing for his child, 
and then that she should go and marry again, have 
an enormous family and bring another man’s child- 
ren up on what practically belonged to the first 
husband’s child. 

Mrs. Doughty spoke of an enormous family as 
if the possession thereof was one of the seven 
cardinal sins and ought to be put down. Mrs. 
Trafford serene in the knowledge of her two children 
smiled as she bethought her of a verse in a great 
Book which says — “ Blessed is the man who hath 
his quiver full of them.” 

However, Mrs. John Doughty had other fish to 
fry, that is other calls to make — I have said that 
the ladies of Blankhampton were great at that kind 
of social observances — and she very soon went away. 
Cap! ain Legard went away at the same time — a mere 
coincidence, of course.” 

“ My dear,” said Mrs. Trafford to Julia when the 
door had closed behind them — “is there anything 
wrong with me to-day, or are the times out of 


ON THE BRINK. 


119 


joint ? Surely I could not be mistaken in thinking 
that everything went wrong with everybody else.” 

“Oh! you were not mistaken, dear,” Julia 
answered. “ It was really quite painful. I wished 
I had never been born or that I had neither eyes 
nor ears. I don’t know that I was ever so uncom- 
fortable in my life. In fact, we must all have 
looked like the people in Du Maurier’s pictures in 
the 6 Things one would rather have left unsaid ’ 
series.” 

“It was most unpleasant,” said Mrs. Trafford 
busily gathering her knitting together and putting 
it into a pretty satin-lined and much trimmed 
basket. “I wonder now if you would mind my 
going away for a few minutes, Mr. Howard? I 
promised to write a rather important letter and I 
have only just time to do so before dinner.” 

Stephen Howard got up from his chair and said 
he would not detain Mrs. Trafford for the world. 
Would she rather that he did not stay — that he went 
away ? 

“ By no means,” Mrs. Trafford answered graciously. 
It was too kind of him not to mind her telling him 
quite as an old friend and without ceremony. She 
should not be very long. 

Thus Mrs. Trafford went away and intimated to 
the admirable Cox that no more visitors were to be 
admitted. Then she went into the morning-room 
and scrawled a letter to a friend, of no importance 
whatever. After which she settled herself in a com- 
fortable chair and buried herself in the pages of a 


120 


MRS. BOB. 


new magazine in which she was greatly interested. 
I have a great admiration for Mrs. Trafford. What 
she might have proved in the busier rush and 
keener competition of a London swim I cannot say 
— I think she would have done well and have proved 
herself, what she undeniably proved herself in 
Blankhampton, a thoroughly skilful tactician. I 
know that she put all the Mrs. Doughtys and Antro- 
buses and all the rest of the Blankhampton matrons 
to utter and complete shame — to use the language 
of the turf, she romped clean away from them. 


CHAPTEE X. 

<C WE WANT TO GET MARRIED.” 

“A woman has two smiles that an angel might envy — the smile 
that accepts the lover afore words are uttered, and the smile that 
lights on the first-born baby.” — H alibueton. 

Left to themselves in the drawing-room, Stephen 
Howard and Julia drew nearer to the fire. 

“I was so surprised to see you,” said Julia putting 
her foot on the fender and resting her arm on the 
edge of the low mantelshelf. “ I did not expect to 
see you for a week at least. In fact, if you had 
not turned up again for a fortnight, I should not 
have been much surprised.” 

He drew a trifle nearer to her. “ Do you know 
why I didn’t go ? ” he asked. 

“ Why, how should I know ? ” she demanded. 


“WE WANT TO GET MARRIED . 1 


121 


“ I’ll tell you. I — I couldn’t go until I had spoken 
to you,” he burst out. 

Julia grew coquettish — “Spoken to me, Mr. 
Howard,” she said — <£ But about what ? ” 

The assumption of coquetry gave him courage and 
he took hold of her hand. " Don’t you know what 
about ? ” he asked. “ Oh ! my dear — my dear — my 
little love,” he whispered, and then he caught her to 
him and they had come to understand one another, 
and Mrs. Trafford had secured another good match, 
had indeed wrested the prize from the Blank- 
hampton matrons before they had even realized that 
there was a new prize in the field. 

“ And you’re quite sure,” murmured Julia after a 
little time, “ that you really like me.” 

“ Yes, I’m quite sure,” said he, holding her yet 
more closely to him. 

“ And you don’t think you will change your 
mind ? ” 

“ I am sure I shall never do that,” he replied. 
<c You are much more likely to want to change 
yours.” 

“ I don’t think so,” Julia said gravely. 

Then there was silence again for a moment 

“ What will your mother say ? ” he said pre- 
sently. 

“ She will be delighted,” answered Julia. “ She 
likes you immensely.” 

“ And your sister, Lady Staunton ? I am a 
little afraid of Lady Staunton,” he said looking at 
her doubtfully. 


122 


MRS. BOB. 


“Afraid of my sister,” Julia echoed. “Why my 
sister is a darling ! Afraid of Laurie — well, that is 
funny.” 

“ But she is — is — a great lady and — and she 
might not think me good enough for you. She 
might think it most objectionable to have a savage 
for a brother-in-law,” he urged. 

“ Yes, she might, but it is not very likely,” Julia 
said with a laugh. 

“ You won’t want to keep me waiting long ? ” he 
said, after another pause. 

“ No — but I must have time to get my things 
ready,” she answered. 

“ No, don’t,” he said — “I will buy you any 
quantity of things, as you call them, after we are 
married.” 

“ You will have to see what Mother has to say 
about that,” she returned. 

“Then let us go and find her and tell her at 
once and see what she says about it,” he cried 
eagerly. 

So Julia and he went down to find Mrs. Trafford 
and impart the news to her — “ Kiss me before we 
go,” he said fondly as they reached the door. 

And Julia kissed him and he kissed Julia a great 
many times before he opened it. 

“ I think Mother went down into the morning- 
room,” Julia said, as they descended the stairs — 
“ Yes, she is in there, I believe.” 

Mrs. Trafford was in the morning-room — in fact, 
she was so deeply engrossed in the magazine that 


“WE WANT TO GET MARRIED.” 123 

she had fallen asleep by the comfortable fire and 
when Julia with a good deal of noise opened the 
door, she jumped to her feet and the magazine went 
to the ground with a crash, knocking against the 
fire-irons on its way. With great presence of mind, 
she pushed it out of sight with her foot and put up 
her hand to see if her hair and its trimming of 
dainty lace felt all right. 

“Have you written your letter, dear?” asked 
Julia. 

Mrs. Trafford was herself again in a moment. 
“Yes, I had just finished,” she replied — “I was on 
the point of coming upstairs to you.” 

“ And we have come down to look for you,” 
said Julia with pretty shyness — “because — well, 
because ” 

“ Because we have something to tell you,” chimed 
in Stephen Howard. 

“ Yes,” said Mrs. Trafford waiting for one or other 
of them to go on, though she saw very plainly what 
was coming. 

“Well, the fact is, Mrs. Trafford,” said Stephen 
Howard bluntly — “ the fact is, we want to get 
married.” 

“ Yes, Mother darling,” echoed Julia — “ we want 
to get married.” 

I do not know how how it was, but at this point 
the ludicrous aspect of the situation presented itself 
to Mrs. Trafford and she immediately went off into 
gay fits of the wildest laughter. The lovers, for a 
moment, looked as if they were half inclined to be 


124 


MRS. ROB. 


offended, then they too began to laugh and the 
three laughed one against the other till the tears 
actually stood in Mrs. Trafford’s eyes. She was the 
first to recover herself. 

“ Oh ! my* dears,” she cried, drying her eyes with 
a cobwebby bit of cambric — “ forgive me, I beg of 
you. It is cruel of me to laugh at you, for I am so 
glad, so glad at what you tell me. But indeed the 
way in which you announced it was too funny — 6 We 
want to get married ’ — Oh ! it was too funny.” 

But after that she sobered down and talked over 
the situation with a grave and kind manner which 
comforted Stephen Howard greatly. “ I wonder 
what your sister will say ” — she said after a time. 

“ Oh ! my sister knows — that is to say she knows 
that I intended to ask Julia if she would have me,” 
he replied. 

“And what does she say about it?” 

“She is delighted. She will tell you so herself 
when she comes over, which is sure to be to- 
morrow,” he said — then with an instant's hesitancy, 
added — “ And I hope you won’t keep me hanging 
about very long.” 

“ My dear boy,” said Mrs. Trafford — “ I promise 
you that I will not. There is no nuisance in the 
world like an engaged couple always about the 
house. It is such a very short time since my other 
children were married, that I have a feeling re- 
membrance of it. We had only just got the house 
settled and quiet again .and now we have to go 
through it all ” 


“WE WANT TO GET MARRIED.” 125 

“ Mrs. Trafford,” he broke in — I assure you I will 
not unsettle anything — not anything. I think it’s 
an awful shame when men expect to have whole 
households turned topsy-turvy and heaps of things 
bought just because they have managed to persuade 
a certain young lady to marry them. If you would 
let us walk quietly out one morning next week and 
get married without a word to anybody at all, I 
should be quite satisfied — I should indeed.” 

“ But I should not,” Mrs. Trafford returned, 
smiling at Julia’s dismayed face. “ My daughter 
must have a proper wedding and a proper trousseau. 
Her sister and cousin each had them and she must 
have them too. But at the same time, if you are 
both very anxious for it there is really no reason 
why you should wait more than six weeks, or even a 
month. But I really could not consent to have a 
marriage hurried on earlier than that, I really could 
not,” 

With this Stephen Howard was obliged to be 
content. He was desperately in earnest, this young 
man, and now that he had broken the ice had no 
notion of losing anything for the want of asking for 
it. 

Mrs. Trafford proved herself the most complaisant 
of prospective mothers-in-law ; indeed she was now 
so well used to this kind of thing that she felt 
herself on perfectly familiar ground. 

“ Well, my dears,” she said — “I don’t see that we 
can arrange anything more to-night. Mr. Howard, 
you will stay and share our dinner, won’t you ? ” 


126 


MRS. BOB. 


“ I will with pleasure, Mrs. Trafford,” he 
answered — “ on one condition — that you won’t call 
me Mr. Howard any more.” 

“My dear Stephen, I will do as you wash,” she 
said, in her own airy little way. “ But do, my 
dears, go back to the drawing-room. I have a letter 
to write and one or two trifles to attend to.” 

They went out of the room but Julia ran back from 
the foot of the stairs. “ Is your letter to Laurie ? ” 
she asked. 

“ Yes. I thought of writing to let her know — 
you don’t mind, do you, dear ? ” 

“ Not a bit. But give her my love and tell her I 
am very happy,” said Julia. 

Mrs. Trafford threw her arms round her daughter 
and held her tenderly to her. “ I am so happy too, 
darling,” she said, “ for he is handsome and charm- 
ing and good too, Julia ! I am sure he is good.” 

“Yes. I think he is good,” Julia whispered. 

Mrs. Trafford pulled out the bit of flimsy cambric 
again and wiped a few tears away when Julia and 
her lover had gone upstairs again. Of course, she 
was glad that this engagement had come about. 
For some time past she had felt herself getting on 
in life, though she was not fifty yet, and the 
thought of leaving one or other of her girls alone 
in the world had worried her not a little. Besides 
that she had always believed firmly that the married 
state was the happiest state, the most natural and 
the most desirable, and she felt sure that her girls 
would make good wives as they had made good 


“WE WANT TO GET MARRIED. 

daughters. And yet, now that it had v 
parting with the last of them it was an una 
wrench, even though this young man seem 
far as she could tell, to be all that she had sa. 
him in speaking of him to Julia, handsome , 
charming and good too. 

However, she did not allow herself to look ver) 
long upon the darker side of the picture — Julia was 
happy and she had carried otf another most desirable 
match from the other matrons of Blankhampton, 
and she therefore soon dried her tears and went 
down stairs to consult with the cook about sundry 
little additions to that evening's dinner. 

At any other time she would have touched the 
bell and have let the cook come to her ; but the 
occasion had made her feel the want of human in- 
tercourse and she became more genial in conse- 
quence. So she went down into the comfortable 
servant’s hall, where a bright little fire was burning, 
and told Cook that Mr. Howard was going to stay to 
dinner and that they must have a little more added 
to it. 

The servants, of course, knew very well what was 
going on up-stairs, though they did not as yet know 
that Miss Julia and the handsome young man who 
had been so much about the house of late had 
actually come to an understanding, Cook suggested 
that the thick soup and roast duck of which her 
ladies’ dinner was to consist should be supplemented 
by a bit of fish and a little dish of cutlets and 
assured her mistress, to whom she was devoted that 


MRS. BOB. 


plenty of time before eight o’clock to 
e it comfortably. 

Mrs. Trafford left it to her and tbrned to go 
,tairs again. But at the door she turned back 
I must tell you what has happened,” she said — ' 
for you have both been such good servants to me. 
Miss Julia and Mr. Howard are engaged.” 

It was very pleasant to hear their congratulations, 
to hear Cox descant on Mr. Howard’s good looks 
and pleasant ways — “ I am sure, Ma’am,” said Cox 
hqlf shyly — “ that the young ladies have got three 
as handsome gentlemen as ever married into a 
family.” 

“And the gentlemen three as*Sweet young ladies 
as could be found anywhere,” said Smith. “But if 
you’ll pardon me speaking what I think, Ma’am, 
Miss Julia has always been my favourite.” 

“ Yes, Smith, I know it,” answered Mrs. Trafford, 
with a certain suspicious dewiness about her eye- 
lids. “ It will be a great loss to me, but if it is for 
her happiness I shall not mind — mind, why I am 
delighted about it.” 

“ Yes, Ma’am,” answered Smith. “ You said just 
now, Ma’am, that we have been good servants to 
you. I hope we have, for you’ve been a good kind 
mistress to us, and it’s missises that have most to 
do with the making of servants. I’ve been in ser- 
vice a good many years now, Mum, and I know by 
this time what missises and servants and young 
ladies are. And our young ladies, they are ladies.” 

Well, the result of this bit of confidence was that 


THE GREAT ST. EVE’S ROBB ERA 

when the two ladies and Stephen How 
down to dinner, Julia found a nice little 
white flowers upon her serviette and written 
card attached to it was this message — “ With 
pectful love and good wishes, from Smith and Cl 
“ Oh ! Cox ! ” cried Julia, the tears springing in 
her eyes. As for Stephen Howard, he gave Cox u 
sovereign for herself before he went away that 
night, and another one for Smith, and perhaps never 
in all this world did a posy of simple white flowers 
give so much pleasure to five people. 


CHAPTER XI. 

THE GREAT ST. EVE’S ROBBERY. 

** Be of good cheer ! for if we love one another, 

Nothing in truth can harm us.” — Evangeline. 

That evening Stephen Howard went back to Brent- 
wood where he found his sister alone, in the little 
drawing-room or boudoir, reading a book. She 
looked up as he entered and laid luer book down on 
her knee. 

“ Well ? ” she said in a questioning tone. 

“ Well,” he returned half smiling — “ it’s all right 
— I’ve done it.” 

Mrs. Bob at once jumped up, letting her book fall 
just as Mrs. Trafford had done a few hours before. 
“My dear boy,” she cried — “you don’t mean it. 
You are sure you really like her, Stevie ? ” 


9 


t 


MRS. BOB. 

i. am quite sure,” he said steadily. “ You 
jjpose I should be such a fool as to marry 
any other woman if I didn’t ? ” 
ell, one never knows,” Mrs. Bob answered, 
then she put her arms round his neck and 

,gged him tenderly. “ I hope you will be very 
.appy, dear Steve,” she said fondly — “ but it’s a 
ask, my dear, in our circumstances.” 

“ Oh ! not a bit of it,” he returned confidently. 

“ But she will know nothing of ” 

“ Nothing,” he broke in sharply. 

“ But won’t that make things more difficult for 
you, or at least a little awkward ? ” 

“ I don’t think so ; on the contrary, in fact, for 
everything will work better,” he answered. 

Mrs. Bob sat down in her chair again and looked 
up at him anxiously. “ She is a nice girl, Stevie, a 
dear girl and a good gill too, I am sure — and she’s 
fond of you too.” 

“ Yes, she’s fond of me,” he repeated tenderly. 

“ I don’t know that it’s quite fair not to ^tell her 
everything,” Mrs. Bob went on dreamily. 

“ Oh ! nonsense — absurd — is it likely ? ” he burst 
out. “ Why, she might see everything in just a 
wrong light and — and I can’t bear the idea of losing 
her, Maimie— I daren’t risk it, so don’t suggest such 
a thing to me again.” 

“ But you’ll take care to provide against any 
accidents,” Mrs. Bob urged. “ You’ll make settle- 
ments ? ” 

“ I shall settle twenty thousand on her.” 


* 


THE GREAT ST. EVE’S ROBBER! 

“ Twenty thousand ! It’s a big sew 
Stevie — still, it will be better and she will bv 
whatever happens. And what did her mothei 
about it ? ” 

“ She asked what you would say,” he answered. 

“ I — Oh ! you might have told her that I am 
delighted about it, delighted.” 

“ Yes, I told her I was sure you would be.” 

“ That was right. I will go and see them 
to-morrow,” she said carelessly. “ Are you going to 
Town to-morrow ? ” 

“ Yes, by the mail — I shall be early enough.” 

“ Yes, and you will be able to buy her an engage- 
ment ring if you haven’t done so already.” 

“ Yes,” he said — “ I am going to get it in the 
morning.” 

“ Diamonds, of course ? ” 

“ Yes — she chose diamonds.” 

“ Ah ! — her taste agrees with mine. Wasn’t it 
lucky that Violet Lucifer insisted on my wearing 
that butterfly on that particular evening ? I really 
do look upon that as a special providence. I should 
have been sorry to part with it. I could never have 
happened to meet ^with a big ruby of the right 
colour again, could I ? ” 

“ Not very easily,” he replied. 

“ Oh ! here’s Bob. Bob,” cried the little lady — 
“ Steve has gone and done it.” 

“ Done it ? What, you mean the little widow’s 
daughter ? Well, my boy, I hope it will be all 
right, that I do,” and he came across the room and 
I 9* 


MRS. BOB. 


Stephen’s hand hard. I hope you’ll be 
, old chap, and the little woman too.” 

.hank you, Bob,” said Stephen heartily. 

Then she’s to know nothing ? ” Bob went on 

jsently. 

“ Absolutely nothing,” Stephen answered. 

“ And if she finds out ? ” the other enquired. 

“ She will not find out,” Stephen said promptly. 

“ All the better,” rejoined Bob Markham, with 
decision. “ Well, Maimie, I suppose you’ll go in 
and talk the whole business over to-morrow with 
Mrs. Traffoi J ? Yes. Well, yon can give the bride 
a handsome present from us both and don’t stint 
the price of it.” 

“ Very well,” she returned. 

Thus the announcement of Stephen Howard’s 
engagement to Julia was made to his own people, 
and the following day Mrs. Bob got into her Victoria 
and drove to No. 7 to express to Mrs. Trafford and 
Julia the delight that the news had given her. 

“ Bear Mrs. Trafford, 1 am so glad, so very very 
glad,” she exclaimed, quite rushing into Mrs. Traf- 
ford’s h rms — “ Stephen is such a dear dear boy, and 
he will make her such a good husband. And we 
have been so anxious that he should marry and he 
has been so long in finding the right one, but now 
that he has found her I cannot tell you how very 
very glad I am.” 

“ And I am glad too,” said Mrs. Trafford gra- 
ciously She felt that she was in the position of 
the approached instead of the approaching and that 


THE GREAT ST. EVE’S ROBBERY. 133 

it became her to be gracious but not gushing. Time 
had been when Mrs. Trafford would have gushed a 
good deal over Stephen Howard to his sister, but 
Mrs. Trafford was a woman on whom the lessons 
of time an,d experience were not throwm away ; 
indeed she profited by every lesson she had ever 
had. 

“ I think they will be very happy,” Mrs. Bob 
went on — “ they are so suited to each other and 
Stevie is perfectly devoted to her. He has been 
down this morning, of course. At least,’’ with a 
gay little laugh, “ he disappeared very early from 
our horizon.” 

“ Yes, he was here rather early,” Mrs. Trafford 
answered — “ and I think they are not far away now. 
Julia said they would be here at tea-time.” 

“ Then if you will ask me I will wait and see her. 
I may ? Oh ! then shall I send the carriage home ? 
they can come back at half-past six ! Yes, I must 
go then. We are dining at the Bishop’s.” 

So Mrs. Bob took off her seal-skin coat and 
settled down for a long chat with Mrs. Trafford on 
the subject which was just uppermost in the minds 
of both of them. 

“ I suppose they have not decided where to live 
or anything yet,” Mrs. Bob went on. “ Do I mind 
where ? No, not a bit — it is all pretty near toge- 
ther in England. I rather think Steve has a fancy 
for a house in Town, as head quarters you know, 
but, of course, he will have to hear what the lady 
has to say about it.” 


1S4 


MRS. BOB. 


“ I think Julia would prefer that,” Mrs. Trafford 
said. 

“ Ah \ f yes. Of course, they will be very well off. 
By the bye, has Stevie said anything to you about 
settlements ? ” 

“ No, not yet. I have hardly seen him this 
morning,” Mrs. Trafford answered. 

“ He talks of settling twenty thousand on her, 
for her own use of course. And for the rest, well 
Stevie has been very lucky in his business affairs. 
He cannot have less than four thousand a year.” 

“ I did . t know that Stephen had any pro- 
fession,” Mrs. Trafford said in surprise. 

“No profession, dear Mrs. Trafford, but he has a 
good deal of property which all takes a good deal 
of looking after. Stevie has never trusted his 
affairs to other people, which I call very wise ; when 
I spoke of his being lucky in business affairs I meant 
in ways connected with his property. For instance 
he sold our father’s estate in Queensland for far 
more than we ever expected it w T ould make. And 
then he does a good deal of chopping and changing 
with his shares and things — Oh ! I can’t tell you 
but he has always had luck and he has a long head 
too.” 

Well, as Mrs. Trafford said, that was her last day 
of peace. Everybody was pressing for a short 
engagement and a speedy marriage. The Markhams 
urged it. Stephen Howard prayed for it. Julia 
shyly said that she wished it. 

In vain did Mrs. Trafford suggest three months 


THE GREAT ST. EVE’S ROBBERY. 135 

as a fitting and suitable time, in vain equally did 
she sue for at least half that period — they were four 
to one and they all talked at her with such earnest- 
ness that at last she gave a somewhat reluctant 
consent to an engagement of only a month’s dura- 
tion. But as she said it was a time that she felt a 
little ashamed of, she felt she should have to explain 
to all the town the reason for so short an' engage- 
ment, which was very awkward as she had no 
adequate reason to give. 

They had had a jubilant telegram of congratula- 
tion during the course of the morning from Laura 
Staunton, and a letter followed which said that they 
were coming straight to Blankhampton on the first 
of November, and added that she, Lady Staunton, 
was simply dying to see Julie’s choice. 

And on November the first, the Stauntons arrived 
in time for dinner, Laura in a great state of excite- 
ment and full of fondest congratulations. “ And he 
is really very nice, Julia ? ” she asked, having 
invaded the sacred recesses of her sister’s bedroom. 

“There he is,” answered Julia holding out a large 
cabinet photograph of Stephen. 

“ Oh ! my dear, he is splendidly handsome.” 
Laura cried with genuine admiration — “ if he is 
half as nice as he looks, you are a lucky girl. 
Really, Julie, has it ever struck you lately, that we 
three girls have been extraordinarily lucky ? ” 

“ Yes. And we have to thank Mother for a good 
deal,” answered Julia gravely. 

“ Yes. Mother has always been very good to us. 


136 


MRS. BOB. 


She is so judicious. Why, if it hadn’t been for her, 
we might have come to Blankhampton like the 
Mornington Browns and here we might have stuck 
just as they have done. I don’t know that we are 
as good-looking as the Mornington-Browns take us 
both all round.” 

“ Oh ! yes, we are,” Jnlia returned coolly. 
“ They are not much to look at when you take 
Tina’s yellow hair away. The other one is a frump. 
You know it doesn’t do to be a frump, though you 
can be as ugly as you like.” 

“ Yes, there’s something in that,” murmured 
Lady Staunton thoughtfully. “ By the by, Madge 
sent you all sorts of the tenderest messages. She 
was quite wild about it, when 1* went to tell her 
the news. All her regret was that she couldn’t 
possibly come to see you before the great event 
comes off. 

“ Dear Madge — and how is she ? ” Julia cried. 

“ Oh ! fairly well. Marky is tremendously 
devoted and she has exquisite tea-gowns. For the 
rest you know it is dreadfully weary work waiting 
for the heir.” 

“ And if it is a girl ? ” 

“ Well, I daresay the Ceesprings will be a little 
sorry. I don't think Madge cares which it is and 
I’m sure Marky does not, so long as Madge is all 
right.” 

Well, a few minutes afterwards Cox came to say 
that Mr. and Mrs. Markham had come, so the sisters 
went down together. And really, though there had 


THE GREAT ST. EVE’S ROBBERY. 137 

used to be a considerable difference between them 
in point of looks, Sir Anthony Staunton noticed at 
once that there was now but very little to choose 
between them. True, Julia looked a little older 
than his wife and perhaps a little less pretty, but 
the change in her was simply startling. And so 
ran the thoughts of Mr. and Mrs. Bob. “ My 
dear,” said Mrs. Bob in a whisper to her brother’s 
fiancee — “ you should not tell people that your 
sister is very pretty — it sounds so conceited.” 

“Conceited,” echoed Julia — “About one’s 
sister ? ” 

“ No, not about your sister , Puns,” Mrs. Bob 
laughed. “ But when your sister is so ridiculously 
like yourself — ” 

“ Laurie like me,” cried Julia, in genuine amaze- 
ment. 

“ Yes, as like as two peas,” answered Mrs. Bob 
smiling. “ By the bye, Stevie will be here in a 
moment or so. He has gone down to the jeweller’s 
to get your bracelet.” 

“ Oh ! how good of him,” Julia cried. 

In less than five minutes Stephen Howard came. 

“ By the bye, there’s no end of a row going on 
at the end of the street,” he said eagerly. “ That 
pretty Mrs. Lovelace has had every scrap of jewelry 
she possessed stolen this afternoon.” 

“Mrs. Lovelace,” screamed Julia. 

“ Must be the same gang that got your things, 
Maimie,” said Stephen. “ I stopped to ask the man 
who runs the house about it. It seems that the 


138 


MRS. BOB. 


Lovelaces have stayed at this house whenever they 
are in Blankhampton for years, the drawing-room 
floor is theirs, as a matter of fact.” 

“ Yes — yes — we know — go on,” cried Mrs. 
Trafford. 

“ And somehow or other this afternoon an 
individual quietly walked in and fetched the things 
away, but whether it was a man or a woman they 
don’t know or exactly when it took place.” 

Mrs. Bob began to look horribly scared ! “ Oh ! 

Bob, I feel so frightened. You shall not buy me 
any more diamonds or anything else whilst we are 
in Blankhampton or at least not until this gang is 
captured.” 

“ Laura, my child, I trust you have not brought 
your sapphires here,” exclaimed Mrs. Trafford sud- 
denly. 

“ I am afraid I have, dear,” Lady Staunton 
replied. 

“ Then Anthony, go and fetch them, my dear, 
and we will take them down to dinner with us, and 
to-morrow if you please we will have them put into 
the Bank for safe keeping. They are the finest 
sapphires in England,” she added to Mrs. Bob, “ and 
I would not have the responsibility of keeping them 
in my house for all the world. You are most 
foolish Laura to carry them about the country with 
you.” 

“ But I want to wear them, dear,” Laura pro- 
tested. 

“You won’t be able to wear them if you lose 


THE GKREAT ST. EVE’S ROBBERY. 139 

them, you know,” Mrs. Bob put in. “I had a nice 
little collection of diamonds a few days ago, and 
now you see all my wealth. I wear these every 
night and nearly all day for fear I lose them too. 
In fact, I may as well confess among ourselves — 
when I cannot wear them suitably outside my frock 
I wear them underneath it. If I were you I should 
wear as many of your sapphires about you as you 
can.” 

“ Oh ! no,” Laura cried with a laugh — “they are 
too large and too heavy ; they would show.” 

“That is what I should do,” said Mrs. Bob 
wisely. 

“ But how could they know just when to slip into 
Mrs. Lovelace’s room ? ” Mrs. Trafford asked. 

“ Thieves know everything,” Stephen Howard 
answered. “ How did they find out just the position 
of my sister’s room at Matcham, where her box 
stood, what kind of box it was ? How did they 
know the exact moment to choose them and get olf 
clear with plunder from two different parts of the 
house ? Oh ! thieves are marvellous creatures.” 

“ I have never felt very sure of your maid,” re- 
marked Mrs. Trafford. 

“ Oh ! she is honest as the day. Besides, she 
could have taken them over and over again if she 
had wanted. I had her from Lady Lauderton — or 
rather from her daughter Mrs. Stonor. She was 
there eleven years and only left when Lady Lau- 
derton died. Oh no, she is quite innocent of that. 
1 have the utmost confidence in her.” 


140 


MBS. BOB. 


44 And her mother did die,” remarked Bob. 

Then Cox came to say that dinner was served, and 
they all went down, Sir Anthony, with a comical 
expression, carrying his wife’s jewel-case under his 
arm. 

44 Put it on the chimney-shelf, Anthony,” said 
Mrs. Trafford — 44 where I can keep my eye on it. 
Dear me, poor Mrs. Lovelace, I do feel most sorry 
for her.” 

44 Yes, poor thing, so do I,” echoed Julia, thinking 
of Captain Legard and Pamela Winstanley and how 
he had played off one against the other and ended 
by throwing over both. Poor little soul, with her 
bold little dark face and her blazing black eyes, it 
was hard really that she should have lost her jewels ; 
and yet, it seemed almost like a judgment upon her 
for her folly in flirting so desperately as she un- 
doubtedly had done, when she had a quite charming 
husband always at hand who would have been 
proud to gratify her every whim — yes, it was really 
like a judgment ! 

So they dined in great merriment with the Staun- 
hon sapphires safely reposing on the chimney-shelf, 
and after dinner Laura with much pride showed 
them to the Markhams and Stephen Howard. 

44 My dear,” said little Mrs. Bob at parting — 44 take 
my advice — Wear those sapphires about you, wear 
them under your clothes. Banks may be broken 
into almost as easily as houses — nobody can take 
your sapphires away by violence, at least not in such 
circumstances as are likely to be yours.” 


MISS ALICE’S DOUBLE. 


141 


“ Oh ! Anthony keeps a revolver by him at night,” 
said Laura confidently. 

“Burglars are generally very near shots,” an- 
swered Mrs. Bob. “ Anyway, remember what I say. 
I wear mine all day, and I push them between the 
mattresses at night. Well, you may laugh, but it’s 
true — I do really.” 


CHAPTER XII. 
miss Alice’s double. 

“ Never mind what a man’s virtues are ; waste no time in learning 
them. Fasten at onee on his infirmities.” — Lytton. 

By the next morning all Blankhampton was in a 
blaze of excitement about the robbery of Mrs. Love- 
lace’s jewels. She had never been much liked in 
the town, having from remote times gone in largely 
for what in country towns is known as “ carrying 
on.” Her equals objected to it because they had a 
sort of vague starched idea that it was not the right 
kind of thing, that it let down their class and 
lowered their order ; her rivals hated her little ways 
because they did not care about being left out in 
the cold, and where Mrs. Lovelace was there it 
generally happened the men were to be found also, 
and in a way not very well calculated to please the 
other belles of the place ; her inferiors said openly 
enough that they did not think the lady’s carryings 
on respectable. 


142 


MRS. BOB. 


Yet— though nobody was really in their hearts 
very sorry for Mrs. Lovelace's loss — the entire popu- 
lation of Blankhampton went into a lever of ex- 
citement over the robbery itself. It was too 
dreadful that anything so bold, so impudent, 
should have happened in their u suspecting midst, 
that while the old ladies were out with their card- 
cases or perhaps the young ones were deep in their 
devotions at the Parish, a thief had boldly walked 
into a house in a well-frequented thoroughfare and 
had carried off a box of jewels. 

It was reasonable enough to the Blankhampton 
people that a gang of thieves should put a ladder 
against Lady Lucifer’s window and make themselves 
too painfully at home in her private apartments, 
while as for that Mrs. Markham, well, they simply 
thought it was too disgusting that an Australian 
squatter’s wife (Australians are all supposed to be 
squatters to deep-rooted folk such as gather around 
the stately Cathedrals of this country) should ever 
have possessed such a wealth of beautiful jewels, a 
woman who had probably been quite a low creature 
to begin with, such as made Blankhampton people 
wonder what Lady Lucifer could be thinking of to 
strike up an intimate friendship with her, and even 
invite her to stay in her house. 

But when these thieves came into the very midst 
of the Town, when they could walk boldly into a 
lady’s room in the middle of the afternoon and help 
themselves, then it was indeed coming home to 
them, and society talked about nothing else. And 


MISS ALICE’S DOUBLE. 


143 


then when society had talked it well over — society 
in the shape of Mrs. Fairlie and Mrs. John Doughty, 
Mrs. Monson and the young lady with the nose — 
society went home and locked away its tea-spoons, 
its imitation pearls and its brilliant paste ornaments. 
Ah ! dear, but this is a funny world. 

In Eve’s, however, the excitement was even 
deeper, and the inhabitants of the houses which 
had not been robbed felt as people sometimes feel 
when the next-door house has been struck with 
lightning, and like a man does when he finds 
himself in the midst of a railway accident and the 
man next to him is struck dead by his side. 

“ Do you know,” said Julia during the course of 
that dinner, while the Staunton sapphires graced 
the chimney-shelf — “ do you know I saw Alice 
Mauleverer go in to the Lovelaces’ about half-past 
four to-day ? ” 

“ Did you ? ” somebody asked. 

“ Yes. I was standing in the window watching 
the lamplighter light the lamps — it was barely dark. 
And I saw Alice Mauleverer cross the road just here 
and go into the corner-house. She opened the 
door and went in — as she always does.” 

“ Did you see her leave ? ” her mother enquired. 

u No — I did not wait to see if she stayed or not. 
I noticed that the lights were not burning — 
indeed I had seen Mrs. Lovelace go across the road 
towards the Mauleverers’ house about half an hour 
before.” 

“ It would have been odd if Miss Mauleverer 


144 


MRS. BOB. 


had gone in just at the right moment, wouldn’t 
it ? ” said Lady Staunton excitedly. 

However, the following day it transpired that 
Miss Alice Mauleverer had never been near the 
corner-house, that Mrs Lovelace had gone to see 
her friends at No. 10 quite , early in the afternoon 
and had stayed there chatting with them until it 
was time for her to go home and dress for the dinner 
at the deanery to which she was bidden, when she 
had immediately missed the jewel-box. And the 
odd part of it was that not one of the three Miss 
Mauleverers had left the room during the two hours 
of her visit even for a minute. 

During the course of the next day a messenger 
came over to Julia from Mrs. Lovelace. Would she 
go over for five minutes? And of course Julia 
went and was shown up to Mrs. Lovelace’s room 
where she found one or two business-like men in 
plain clothes together with the three Mauleverer 
spinsters and Major and Mrs. Lovelace. 

Mrs. Lovelace apologised for having troubled her 
— “ You know that I have lost all my jewels,” she 
said. 

“ Yes — and most sorry we are for you,” said Julia 
kindly. 

“ Well — these gentlemen are detectives, and one 
of them has heard that you said at dinner last 
night, when you were all talking of this affair 
that you saw one of my friends here — Miss Alice 
Mauleverer — cross the road and go in at the door 
below.” 


MISS ALICE’S DOUBLE. 


145 


u Yes. I did,” said Julia — 44 about half-past 
four.” 

44 But do you know that I was in their drawing- 
room yesterday afternoon from four to six o’clock 
and that the three Miss Mauleverers were there and 
never left it for one minute during the whole of 
that time ? ” 

For a moment Julia was thunderstruck — she sat 
and stared at Alice Mauleverer until the ancient 
damsel began to simper and then to blush. 44 I was 
never so much mistaken in my life then,” she cried 
— Julia I mean. 

44 And,” Mrs. Lovelace went on — “ Clark tells me 
that about that time he was coming down stairs and 
that he met Miss Mauleverer on the landing — he 
told her that I was out and that he believed I had 
gone over to No. 10. 4 Yes,’ she answered, 4 she is 

there now, but I have come over for a bottle of 
throat lozenges which Mrs. Lovelace wants.’ He went 
down to get a light having just used his last match 
and when he came back the lady was at the door. 
‘ Don’t trouble about a light, Clark,’ she said — 4 1 
have got them. They were on the table,’ and then 
she went out and Clark shut the door behind her.” 

“ Well, that bears out what I said,” exclaimed 
Julia in great bewilderment, thinking wildly that 
^surely the Mauleverers could not have suddenly 
turned kleptomaniacs. 

44 No Miss Mauleverer came here — not one of 
them was out of my sight from four to six o’clock,” 
Mrs. Lovelace replied. 44 The person you saw and 

10 


146 


MRS. BOB. 


Clark here saw, was a made-up Miss Mauleverer — ” 
here Julia involuntarily gave a glance at the three 
weird sisters on the other side of the room, only a 
dicker of a glance and yet a protest in itself against 
the literal truth of Mrs. Lovelace’s words — “ That 
was the person who stole my jewels.” 

“ Mrs. Lovelace ! ” Julia exclaimed. 

“Yes. That is why I sent for you. It is to 
know if you can help us — if you really saw the 
woman, if you can describe her or give us the least 
clue by which we can trace her ? ” 

Julia shook her head. “ I could only tell you 
that I thought I saw Miss Alice Mauleverer — I could 
not describe the woman more closely than that,” she 
said. “ Why don’t you ask Clark ? He spoke to her, 
and must have seen her better than I.” 

“No— Clark had been upstairs and had just used 
his last match. He met her on a landing, just out- 
side the door here in fact, which is never too well 
lighted even in the morning and he like you thought 
it was Miss Mauleverer and had no suspicion other- 
wise until I got home and found that the jewel-case 
had gone. Bat what we want to know from you is 
how was she dressed ? ” 

“ Oh ! I can tell you that although the dusk was 
311st beginning to fall — ” Julia replied. “ She had 
a dark red dress on with a lot of black braiding on 
the skirt. I have seen Miss Mauleverer in just such 
a dress,” she added — “ in fact I think I saw you in it 
yesterday, and I never noticed that there was any 
difference.” 


MISS ALICE’S DOUBLE. 


147 


“ Yes. I was wearing it yesterday,” said Miss 
Alice. 

u Then she had a short seal-skin coat, tight fitting, 
and a tall black hat. For the rest I can really tell 
you nothing except that she opened the door and 
went in, as I have sometimes seen the Miss Maul- 
everers do.” 

“ And she stayed ” Mrs. Lovelace said 

eagerly. 

“ I don’t know. I did not wait to see,” said Julia 
simply. 

“ And you can tell us nothing more ? ” exclaimed 
Mrs. Lovelace in evident disappointment. 

“I am very sorry — ” Julia answered, “but I am 
afraid I cannot.” 

“ But you would know her if you saw her — 
you would be able to swear to her,” she cried 
anxiously. 

“ I don’t know,” said Julia, with a deprecating 
smile, “ but I think I shall never dare to swear to 
anything. I believe if I saw Miss Alice Mauleverer 
and that person going across the road, that I 
should not know which was which. I only wish 
I could swear to her — I would swear hard, I promise 
you.” 

She took leave of them then, shook hands with 
Mrs. Lovelace, who was looking very anxious and 
ill, made a very stiff little bow to the ancient 
damsels, and allowed Major Lovelace to precede 
her downstairs. And then when he had seen her to 
the doorstep and she had spoken a few words of 

10 * 


148 


MRS. BOB. 


pity for his wife in her misfortune, she went home 
to No. 7, where she found Stephen. 

To the select audience gathered there she de- 
tailed the whole scene, how Mrs. Lovelace had 
looked, how the three aristocratic spinsters from No. 
10 had looked, and lastly how Miss Alice had actu- 
ally brought herself to speak to the obnoxious young 
person from No. 7. 

“ And,” said Julia at last — “ then I told Mrs. 
Lovelace that if I could see the person and Miss 
Alice go across the road together I was quite sure 
I should not know the one from the other, and then 
I think they were satisfied that it was no use tole- 
rating my presence any longer, so they let me come 
away.” 

Cs I am quite relieved that you would not know 
the woman again,” said Stephen Howard at this point. 

“ Yes — why ? ” 

“ Because I have no fancy for being kept waiting 
about for you to give evidence and perhaps our mar- 
riage put off for it,” he answered. 

“ Oh ! but if they catch anybody they think 
likely, I shall have to give evidence all the same,” 
Julia cried. 

“ Are you sure ? ”, he exclaimed. 

“ Perfectly sure,” she answered. 

“ Oh ! I think you are wrong.” 

“ My dear,” said Julia decidedly — “ I don’t think 
your opinion on the subject is worth having. What 
can a mere savage like you know about the English 
law?” 


MISS ALICE'S DOUBLE. 


149 


“ Perhaps I know more than you give me credit 
for,” he cried, with an amused laugh. 

However, the days went by without Julia 
Trafford being called upon to give evidence 
concerning the person whom she had seen go 
across the road and enter the house at the corner 
of the street, and when, by and by, the excitement 
in the town had subsided a little and the sacred 
entree dishes at the River House were again 
brought forth from the fastness in which they 
had been kept since Mrs. Lovelace’s diamonds had 
gone the way of most diamonds, and the townsfolk 
in general began to enjoy the pleasure of using their 
silver tea-spoons again, and the young ladies to wear 
their pearls on occasion and the older ones their 
paste, then Blankhampton awoke to the fact that 
another good match had been snapped up by the 
insatiable maw which put on the top of its note paper, 
“ No. 7, St. Eve’s, Blankhampton.” 

The Blankhampton matrons were all agreed for once 
in a way, and the Blankhampton virgins went their 
way to the Parish and piously thanked Heaven that 
Mrs. Trafford had no more daughters to dispose of. 
And really when you came to look at it from their 
point of view it was hard, very hard, that one 
family should have secured three such men as had 
eaten and would eat their wedding breakfasts at 
No. 7, St. Eve’s. 

There had been a great deal of talk about the 
two Antrobus marriages, but To-To Antrobus’s 
splendour had faded into the merest twilight long 


150 


MRS. BOB. 


before her sister’s glory had burst over her native 
town. And Polly's jewelry had all been bought in 
London, while Stephen Howard went and bought 
most of his at the chief jeweller’s in the High 
Street, a wonderful shop where everybody who was 
anybody was on the most friendly terms and from 
whence a good many of the curious gathered the 
information that little Miss Trafford’s engagement 
ring had been bought there for a consideration of 
sixty pounds, that the gentleman had bought a 
beautiful diamond bracelet which they happened to 
have in stock and that he had ordered a brooch 
formed of his own name in diamonds and had asked 
them to get a handsome necklace or two down for 
her to choose from. 

Mr. Markham also had been in and had brought 
some diamonds for his wife’s birthday and had had a 
talk to them about the wedding-present from his 
wife and himself to Miss Trafford ; so Blankhampton 
knew that there was no deception or even exaggera-r 
tion about the matter, knew that they at No. 7 had 
taken at the flood that tide which leads to fame 
and fortune. 

“ I can’t think how they do it,” cried Mrs. Morn- 
ington-Brown plaintively to her eldest daughter, 
the one whom Julia had called a frump ! 

“ Push ! ” replied Miss Mornington -Brown tartly. 

“ It really is strange,” sighed the old lady, who 
was very delicate and very primly shadowy m her 
whole person, “ I should have thought when Tina 
came here first — why she was quite a child — I 


MISS ALICE’S DOUBLE. 


151 


should have thought she would have married at 
once. But somehow the men seem to think nothing 
of beauty. Tina is a beauty.” 

“ Yes, Tina is a beauty,” said the elder sister, 
who had long ago given up all idea of resigning her 
appointment to St. Catherine. 

“Mrs. Trafford seems to be the great woman 
here,” said the mother of the newly-arrived nine 
daughters to her eldest girl, Miss Chadd. “ Every- 
body is talking about her and half the people envy- 
ing her. Her youngest daughter married Sir 
Anthony Staunton and her niece who lived with 
them married Marcus Orford, Lord Ceespring’s only 
son. And now her eldest girl, quite a plain little 
thing, Mrs. Morecombe told me, is going to marry 
this handsome young Australian millionaire. I 
think we shall have to get to know her.” 

“ I certainly should,” returned Carmine Chadd, 
who had no notion whatever of sitting quietly down 
in Blankhampton to see what fate would send her. 

“ How happy Julia Trafford is,” said Aileen 
Adair, the Dean’s lovely daughter, to Pamela Win- 
stanley as they went home across the Close a few 
days before the wedding. 

“ Yes,” said Pamela, holding her head very high 
as she thought of her own blighted hopes and the 
smart 32nd who had gone out with all gaiety and 
gladness to the tune of “ The girl I leave behind 
me.” “ Yes. I am very glad Julia is making such 
a nice marriage. He is quite the man of her 
heart.” 


152 


MRS. BOB. 


“ Oh ! quite,” returned Aileen, with a soft little 
sigh. 

She was rather tired that evening, her back 
ached and she had been bridesmaid so many times 
since she had come to Blankhampton, and she 
began to feel like the Bishop’s eldest daughter 
often looked — look like her she never could. And 
she had a liking for Anthony Mauleverer, and 
fancied, nay knew that Anthony liked her too. But 
that was hopeless, quita hopeless, and so she gave 
that soft little sigh as they walked along. 

“ Dear Mrs. Trafford,” said Mrs. Fairlie sweetly 
the first time they met after the engagement was 
announced, “ I am so glad, so glad. You will let 
us know in good time that we may send our little 
offering, won’t you ? ” and then the Blankhampton 
Lily went on her elaborate way rejoicing for the 
first time since the great St. Eve’s robbery in all 
the glory of a newly-shaven poodle-dog wearing his 
well-polished silver collar, bells and bangles. 

It happened that when these two ladies met and 
exchanged their greetings in the High Street, on 
the opposite side of the way two persons were 
standing talking together. And when Mrs. Trafford 
and Mrs. Fairlie parted, the younger of the two, 
one Roberts, a minor-canon at the Parish, said to 
the other who was a man holding a like appoint- 
ment — “ ’Pon my word, Molyneux, that woman 
must be going off her head. Look at that dog.” 

The elder man turned and watched the two go 
up the street, took it all in — the hen-like walk, the 


MISS ALICE’S DOUBLE. 


152 


Pompadour stick with its big silver knob, the 
noticeable dog with its silver collar and bells and its 
silver bangles on its legs — and gave a short laugh. 

“Isn’t it astounding that Fairlie lets her make 
such a fool of herself ? ” Roberts went on. 

The older man laughed again. 

“ What would you do if your wife got herselt up 
in that style ? ” he asked. 

“ I wouldn’t have it,” said Roberts promptly. 

“And if she would— what would you do then ?” 
asked the other. 

The younger parson stared at his fellow priest for 
a minute. “ Well, I think I should cut it,” he said 
at last. 

“ So does Fairlie, as much as is practicable,” said 
Molyneux. 

How odd fashion is ! I have often wondered 
who set the fashions in Blankharapton ! Not the 
Blankhampton Lily, that is certain, else the old 
town would have come out in an eruption of be- 
jewelled bow-wows. But still somebody must do it, 
and the mention of Mrs. Fairlie’s Pompadour stick 
reminds me that the very last time I was there I 
was much struck with a fashion which had not only 
obtained but was universal. 

The time was mid-winter, the weather something 
more than broken, the state of the quaint old streets 
filthy. And every lady under forty, and a good 
many over it, carried a stick — it was quite the 
badge of fashion ! Not a little lady-like fancy 
affair but a good stout solid stick with a good stout 


154 


MRS. BOB. 


business-like crutch handle, an excellent help in 
tramping over Scotch moors, along the coast, or for 
Swiss mountains, excellent for a poor soul with a 
club foot or a weak knee. Gaily enough the short- 
skirted Blankhampton damsels flourished these 
thumping great sticks around, but for a pathetic 
sight I commend you to a spinster of certain age, 
with skirts kilted half way to the knee (a process 
which usually occupies both hands) daintily picking 
her way through three inches of liquid mud, while 
the stout stick is grasped in the middle by the 
already occupied hand and swings to and fro like 
the balancing pole of a tight-rope walker. Ye Gods! 
it is a sight to make the angels weep. 


CHAPTER XIII. 

UNBIDDEN VISITORS. 

**A poor man, though living in the crowded mart, no one will 
notice ; a rich man, though dwelling amid the remote hills, his 
distant relatives will visit.” 

— Chinese Proverb. 

In due time Julia Trafford’s wedding came off and 
was pronounced by connoisseurs in that kind of 
function to be the prettiest wedding that had been 
seen in Blankhampton for a long time. To Mrs. 
Trafford it was a particularly joyous occasion 
although she cried a little during the ceremony. 
She knew that it was probably the last time that 
they would all appear together in public in the old 


UNBIDDEN VISITORS. 


155 


city. There was Lady Staunton in a delicate mauve 
and white gown, looking very happy and proud of 
her handsome husband. And there was Madge 
Orford, proud in the possession of a small pink and 
white heir to the old name, Madge herself looking 
delicate and evidently the object of much care to 
Marcus whose brave grey eyes never wandered very 
far away from his wife’s charming face. No wonder 
as the crowded congregation saw the little widow 
and her family, that they said in their hearts or 
whispered in each other’s ears that she was a 
wonderful little woman, as clever as she was high. 

Then there was a smart breakfast in St. Eve’s 
afterwards and an afternoon' reception to see the 
bride and groom leave and to view the wedding 
presents. 

Julia went away almost smothered in rich furs 
amid universal good wishes, and then the company 
turned their attention to the presents. Such an 
array, filtering down in costliness from the beautiful 
diamond jewelry given by the groom, the Markhams 
and the Ceesprings, the silver plate given by the 
Marcus Orfords, the Stauntons, the Lucifers and a 
host of other people, to the piece of needle-work 
which was the gift of Elizabeth Damerel, the china 
plaque given by dear Lady Margaret Adair and the 
olive-wood box which came from the Mornington 
Browns. 

Mrs. Fairlie’s little offering took the form of a 
Pompadour stick of white wood with a huge ivory 
knob on top held in place by a circle of gold on 


156 


MRS. BOB. 


which was graven Julia’s married initials and the 
date of her wedding day. “ It’s a sweet thing,” 
said Julia holding it out and looking at it doubt- 
fully, when she had unfolded the many wrappings 
of tissue paper in which, it was enveloped — “ but — 
but isn’t it a little tall for me ? ” 

Lady Staunton went off into a gay fit of laughter. 
“ My dear child,” she cried — “the thing is nearly as 
tall as yourself. You never can carry it out — you 
will have a mob after you to a certainty if you do. 
Kemember that you are a little thing and have not 
the advantage of Mrs. Fairlie’s height — Hey, what 
do you say ? ” 

“ Nobody calls her Mrs. Fairlie now,” exclaimed 
Julia holding the long white wand at arm’s length 
— “ except to her face, that is. She has budded 
into 6 The Blankhampton Lily.’ ” 

“ Lor ! ” cried Lady Staunton. “ Well, then I’ll 
tell you what I should do with the Lily’s white 
Pompadour if I were you. 1 should just wait till I 
got my house and then I should give it a special 
niche in your own boudoir. You are sure to have a 
white and yellow boudoir, and if you stand the 
Pomp’ up against the new fashioned white wood 
chimney-shelf, it will look lovely. But walk out 
with it you can’t and that is a certainty.” 

“ Not with me,” put in Stephen at this moment. 
So Mrs. Stephen Howard did not take the Pom- 
padour stick away on her honey-moon and it 
remained among the other presents for Blank- 
hampton society to look over and comment upon. 


UNBIDDEN VISITORS. 


157 


Mrs. Lovelace and her Major had sent a pretty 
little brooch with a jewelled fly reposing on it, and 
Mrs. Lovelace had looked one of the prettiest 
women present at the ceremony. But she looked 
ill, everybody noticed that and more than one 
person was heard to say that really she seemed to 
have taken the loss of her jewelry very badly. 

All the same there were one or two who guessed 
that there was another and a very different reason 
than the loss of her jewels which was at the bottom 
of Mrs. Lovelace’s altered looks and graver smiles. 
Pamela Winstanley, for instance, with her own head 
held higher in air than she had ever held it in all 
her life before, which is saying a good deal, knew 
well enough what was in the heart of her rival — her 
rival, good Heavens, she meant her sister, for did 
not she and Mrs. Lovelace stand on the same battle- 
field and had not Captain Legard loved or pretended 
that he loved and then ridden away alike from them 
both. 

More than once Pamela’s pale eyes had met Mrs. 
Lovelace’s great black ones, and not wishing to seem 
to be watching her, she had turned her head away 
quickly and with a gesture which seemed to the 
other to be one of triumph. Ah, if only she had 
known about that little incident in Mrs. Trafford’s 
d rawing-room, when the star of Pamela Winstanley 
nad paled before the sun of Florence Doughty ! 

Well, the excitement attending Julia Trafford’s 
wedding passed away and the robbery of Mrs. 
Lovelace’s jewels ceased to be talked about, was 


158 


MRS. BOB. 


indeed well nigh forgotten, and then the Trafford 
household began to thin — the Stauntons went oft to 
Town for a few days before pajung their visit to the 
old ladies, and Marcus Orford and his wife went back 
to the regiment, having only had a few days’ leave 
for the purpose of attending Julia’s wedding. So 
Mrs. Trafford was left quite alone and she declared 
that she felt quite glad to be quiet and live for herself 
after the excitement and worry of the past two 
years. 

“ Dull, my dear,” she said to Mina de Lisle who 
came to commiserate with her on her lonely state — 
“ no, I am never dull — I have always plenty to do 
and my friends are very kind. But really I am 
only now beginning to breathe again. Two en- 
gagements going on in the house together are 
bad enough, but an engagement of only a month 
in length is a matter of cruelty to everybody 
concerned.” ^ 

“ Are you go’ing to remain in Blankhampbbn, 
Mrs. Trafford,” Mina asked. “ I hope you are. 
Everybody will miss you dreadfully if you leave 
it.” 

“ I shall not leave for the present, my dear,” 
Mrs. Trafford replied. “ You see I have this 
house on my hands till next October and I know 
so many people here that I do not think of leaving 
before next Autumn.” 

“ I hope you won’t leave it then,” cried Mina. 

Mrs. Trafford laughed — <c Oh ! my dear, you may 
have left it yourself long before next October.” 


UNBIDDEN VISITORS. 


159 


“ Yes, that is so — but then I may not,” answered 
Mina with a blush that was a little juvenile for her 
years. 

“ Well, we shall see,” said Mrs. Trafford. “ One 
never quite knows how to look forward when there 
are daughters to take into consideration. Eeally if 
anybody had told me three months ago that I 
should be here alone in my house to-day and Julia 
wooed and married and all, I should have taken the 
liberty of saying that I thought they would prove 
themselves wrong. And yet Julia is married and 
here I am all by myself.” 

But Mrs. Trafford did not find herself left very 
much alone. Her friends came to see her duly and 
truly and especially did the young ladies get into 
the habit of going in at all times — just to cheer 
dear Mrs. Trafford up, they said. And before long 
the young men also got into a habit of going in to 
have a cup of tea with her, and while Marcus Orford 
and Sir Anthony were in Blankhampton they 
naturally went and called on the incoming regiment 
which had relieved the 32nd, and equally naturally 
they took several of the officers to call at No. 7, and 
very soon it became one of the popular houses in 
the town among the officers of the 43rd (Princess 
Mary's Own) Hussars. 

About this time the Bob Markhams went up to 
Town for a few days, but when they got back to 
Brentwood, Mrs. Bob drove over and insisted upon 
taking Mrs. Trafford back for a day or two. She 
tried hard to get out of it but Mrs. Bob would not 


160 


MRS. BOB. 


hear a word about that — they were going to have an 
impromptu dinner party the next evening, the 
Lucifers and some people who were staying there and 
one or two others. It was no use Mrs. Trafford 
declaring that she really wanted rest and quiet more 
than anything else, Mrs. Bob meant her to go and 
said so, she would not take no for an answer and 
simply said she would not leave the house alone. 

So Mrs. Trafford had no choice but to get her 
things put together and submit to the inevitable, 
and I must admit that she enjoyed herself very 
much when she got there. And whilst she was there, 
the neighbourhood was again thrown into a kind of 
convulsion by the news that another great robbery of 
jewels had been committed ! 

Little Mrs. Bob was eloquent about it. “ Oh ! Mrs. 
Trafford,” she cried — “ I do get so frightened by all 
this. I really almost wish that w*e had never come 
into this neighbourhood at all. Yes, I do really. I 
know I shall never know a moment’s peace when we 
get to the Manor Lodge, and of course, if you visit 
much you must have silver and so on. You can 
make a very good show with just as many diamonds 
as you can carry about your person — but you can’t 
carry your dishes and your spoons and forks about 
with you, can you ? ” 

“ Well, not very comfortably,” said Mrs. Trafford, 
with a laugh. “ But, if you are so frightened you 
can buy electro-plate instead of silver — nobody will 
want to steal that.” 

Mrs. Bob looked doubtful. “Bob wouldn’t like 


UNBIDDEN VISITORS. 


161 


that, I’m sure,” she said. 44 He is so odd about those 
things. 4 If you can’t have real things, don’t have 
them at all,’ he always says, and I believe he’d rather 
eat with his fingers than use what he calls sham 
things. Yes, I know it’s very silly, but men who 
have roughed it a good deal are like that. Bob 
really hates display of any kind but he does like to 
have what he has good.” 

44 But the gang have cleared you fairly well out,” 
cried Mrs. Trafford — 44 and surely, after getting all 
those thousands of pounds’ worth of jewels out of 
you, they would never have the heart to come back 
for your spoons and forks.” 

44 1 don’t know,” Mrs. Bob answered. 44 Thieves 
are queer sort of people, you know. They don’t 
stop to think whether the women who own the jewels 
they steal will mind the loss of them. They just 
look upon the possessor of jewels as a sort of gold 
mine which they may as well help themselves to as 
not. If they stopped to think, they would never do 
it and I should still have all the pretty things that 
Bob has bought me from time to time since we were 
married. All the same I do owe this gang some- 
thing. They gave me back my locket and, after 
all, I set more store by that than I do by all the 
rest.” 

44 1 think they will let you off any further toll,” 
said Mrs. Trafford — 44 they will never have the con- 
science to come your way again.” 

44 1 hope not,” said Mrs. Bob simply — 44 but I 
never feel very safe. What I have left is quite worth 


162 


MRS. BOB. 


coming back for. However,” — she went on — *“ Bob 
is making arrangements to have a strong-room put 
in the house before we go to Manor Lodge, and then, 
as he says, we shall lock everything up the first week 
or two and after awhile we shall get careless and 
forget and then one fine morning we shall come 
down and find everything gone.” 

‘*1 am sure I hope not,” said Mrs. Trafford — “ but 
in any case, whatever happens, you are fully prepared 
for the worst.” 

The new outrage had been perpetrated on the 
house of a very rich lady living about four miles 
from Blankhampton. This lady had been bidden to 
dine at the house of her married sister two or three 
miles away, and in accordance with her general 
custom on such occasions she had taken her butler 
and her footman with her to help to wait at table. 
And during their absence, while the rest of the 
servants were at supper, the gang had got in and had 
made a careful and clean sweep of everything ; after 
which they coolly went along to the Palace of the 
great spiritual lord of the diocese, where they effected 
an entrance and helped themselves to such of the 
episcopal plate as they found adorning the great 
carved-oak sideboards and buffets in the Palace 
dining-room. 

After this it is safe to say that the neighbourhood 
went mad with anger and fear, and the trade in 
thief-proof and fire-proof safes was so brisk that the 
makers had hard work to get them set in their places 
as fast as they were ordered. In the town itself the 


UNBIDDEN VISITORS. 


163 


excitement was fast and furious, the teaspoons dis- 
appeared again and the strings of pearls and the 
paste ornaments, and every evening about the hours 
of ten to twelve, you might hear such a rattling of 
chains and shooting of bolts, such a barring of 
windows and jingling of bells, that you might have 
imagined yourself in a prison for state criminals or 
in an asylum for dangerous lunatics. But, though 
half the detectives in Scotland Yard seemed to 
make their appearance at one time or other, ask 
questions and look wise, or prowl round and neither 
ask questions nor look anything one way or the 
other, there was not a trace to be found of the 
missing jewels and plate, not a single trace. In 
every case the work was done quietly, cleanly and 
expeditiously — “ the gang,” as everybody called 
them, left neither hand-prints nor foot-marks 
behind them — it was, in fact, as if the missing 
valuables had been spirited away. 

Perhaps the only person in the town who did not 
seem particularly disturbed by all these dreadful 
occurrences was the little widow in St. Eve’s. But, 
as she herself said, though of course she was dread- 
fully sorry for dear Lady Lucifer and Miss Lithgow, 
and for Mrs. Lovelace and the Bishop too, yet it 
really was no use her pretending to be in fear for 
herself. She had nothing to lose, she said, and it 
was well known that burglars never took the trouble 
to break into houses without being very sure before- 
hand what there was to get. <e And as there is 
nothing to get here,* explained Mrs. . Trafford with 

11 * 


164 


MRS. BOB. 


her little airy laugh — “ why I know very well they 
won’t come.” 

“ And if they did ? ” asked Mrs. Bob, with a 
shudder. 

u Well, if they did I should be very polite and I 
should say 4 If you pie use, Mr. Burglar, there is 
nothing here. 1 will look the other way and swear 
anything you like, so long as you won’t touch me.’ 
And I believe,” Mrs. Trafford ended — “ that any well- 
conditioned burglar would act like a gentleman and 
go away. Yes, I do really.” 

“ Horrid woman,” muttered Mrs. Lovelace to her 
Major, “ I wish they would go and give her a good 
fright. I wonder if one could get a couple of 
ruffians to go one night and see if she is as brave 
as her word. Upon my word, it would be worth a 
hver for each of them.” 


CHAPTER XIV, 

HOME AGAIN. 

“We most willingly embrace the offer of your friendship. 

What is this confounded cur ? ” 

“ It is my dog ; love him for my sake.” — E lia. 

Meantime Mr. and Mrs. Stephen Howard had been 
to Paris for a fortnight and had then returned to 
London, where they proposed staying until a few days 
before Christmas. They had quite decided upon 
making their head-quarters in Town and, as they 


HOME AGAIN. 


165 


would be away so much, thought that it would be 
wisest for them to take a flat. 

Julia — or as her husband now called her, Juey — 
had always had a fancy for a flat, a good flat at a 
rental of about four hundred a year ; and this was not 
so difficult for them to find as she and her mother 
had not so very long before found the little pied-d- 
ten'e which they had sought so earnestly in the 
streets of Mayfair. 

In writing to Laura Staunton, Julia said that she 
was having a lovely time. They had got a flat 
situate in the best part of Victoria Street and it was 
being fitted up to her exact taste in every way. Her 
boudoir was lined with yellow brocade, the colour of 
a buttercup, the hangings were of cream silk with 
gold embroideries, the furniture was entirely of white 
enamel with yellow brocade cushions. In one corner 
was a cabinet of old ivories, worth so much that 
Julia did not quite like to think of what they had 
’cost, in another recess was a service of old red and 
gold Derby. There were fine old fans on the walls, 
neat little nests of book-shelves filled now with all 
Julia’s favourite books bound to keep in harmony 
with the colouring of the room. There were all her 
own especial photographs set here and there and 
several of the cosiest settees possible and a charming 
cosy-corner on one side of the pretty fire-place, a 
corner lor real luxurious ease among large and 
downy cushions clad in the smartest and richest of 
frocks and frills. 

JNor was the boudoir the only pretty room in the 


16 # 


MRS. BOB. 


flat, -the mistress’s bedroom and the dressing-room 
and bath-room adjoining were dressed in a mixture 
of white enamel furniture and pale pink cretonne, 
with hangings to match and all sorts of neatly con- 
trived nooks and corners of convenience — “And I 
think,” said Julia after describing all these delights 
to Lady Staunton — “ that I shall not want to go 
away from my beautiful home for a long long time.” 

However, two days before Christmas saw Stephen 
Howard and his wife on their way to Blankhampton, 
where they found Mrs. Trafford and Mrs. Bob waiting 
at the station to receive them. And then they 
drove to Brentwood, where Mrs. Traflord was also 
staying, and after that, there began a round of 
pleasure for Julia wherein she was the central figure. 
Everybody was glad to see her and everybody wanted 
her to go and see them ; even the ancient damsels at 
No. 10 smiled quite graciously when they met her 
in the street and on one occasion condescended to 
utter half-a-dozen tolerably friendly sentences to her 
when they met her in a shop in the High Street. 

By this time Mrs. Bob had become quite the most 
popular woman for several miles round Blankhamp- 
ton. She was not inclined to be stand-off-ish towards 
anybody, and treated Mrs. John Doughty exactly the 
same as she treated any one of the Civic dignitaries. 
She did not seem to mind whether she was talking 
to the wife of the Lord Bishop or the spouse of the 
youngest parson attached to the Parish. Lady 
Lucifer was her great friend and Mrs. Trafford 
perhaps her next intimate, and for all the rest she 


HOME AGAIN. 


167 


seemed to make no difference, and everybody ex- 
cused her on the ground of her having been born on 
the other side of the world — “ She’s an Australian, 
you know, and people in these new countries are all 
so unconventional.” 

As for Bob himself, he was so much occupied by 
looking after the alterations and repairs at the 
Manor Lodge that he troubled himself very little 
about society one way or the other. He was always 
ready and in his place when there was a festivity of 
any kind on at Brentwood, and he was always dressed 
and ready when the carriage came to take them to 
any evening function at some one else’s house — but 
he very seldom showed himself anywhere with his 
wife during the day except it was at the Parish on 
Sunday afternoon and afterwards in Mrs. Trafford’s 
drawing-room. And whenever and wherever he was 
seen he was alike to all in his demeanour, always 
friendly in a hearty and unconventional sort of way, 
as ready to walk down the street with the dealer of 
whom he bought his horses as he was with the great 
John himself. 

Bob Markham delighted the good people of 
Blankhampton hugely one morning by deliberately 
chaffing Mrs. Fairlie when he met her for the first 
time in company with the redoubtable black poodle. 
At first he did not see that the dog was with her, did 
not in fact see that the dog was there at all, but the 
Blankhampton Lily was rather a pretty woman and 
Bob Markham had an uncommonly keen eye for 
feminine looks. 


168 


MRS. BOB. 


So meeting her, he stopped short and enquired, in 
his hearty old-fashioned way, after her health, and 
Mrs. Fairlie was immediately all smiles and little 
airs and graces. Then while he still held her hand 
Bob caught sight of the dog — his gaze was rivetted 
upon it in a moment and he forgot to wait for her 
reply to his anxious question about the state of her 
health. 

“ Good God, Madam,” he burst out — (C do you see 
that brute with the bracelets on its legs ? Who in 
the world can he belong to ? ” 

“ That is my dog, Mr. Markham,” said Mrs. Fairlie 
very sweetly. 

“ Yours!” he echoed — then looked at her sharply, 
at the correct Directoire costume in which she was 
dressed, at the three-cornered felt hat with its long 
buckle of cut steel at one side, at the soft white 
frill falling from her collar, at her big buttons, her 
long stick, the broad silver buckles on her shoes, 
then back at the dog, after which he suddenly 
realized that the woman and the dog matched one 
another admirably. With the realization came a 
sense of the ridiculous side of the matter and Bob 
straightway went into an elaborate string of ques- 
tions — Did she put his hair in papers at night ? Did 
she have a jewel-box for his jewelry? Wasn’t she 
afraid of the gang paying her a visit ? And a great 
many more such questions all asked with such per- 
fect good humour that the Lily had no opportunity 
of taking offence, and then at last they parted and 
he watched her go sailing up the street, he with 


HOME AGAIN. 


1G9 


difficulty containing himself until she had got out 
of hearing. And then how he laughed, in fact he 
had to go into the gunsmith’s near which they had 
stood while they talked, and there in safe retreat 
he sat and laughed until, as he told the gunsmith 
when he was able to speak, he thought he sho M 
have had a fit. 

“ Bob, you really ought not to do it,” cried Mrs. 
Bob, when her husband repeated the story. 

“ But have you ever seen the brute ? ” he returned, 
chuckling at the very idea of it. 

44 Of course I have seen the dog,” Mrs. Bob replied 
— “ everybody has seen it except you, you dear old 
blind bat. That poodle is just now the very light 
of Mrs. Fairlie’s eyes — it’s like her stick, all her 
own. Why, not another woman in Blankhampton 
would dare to be seen with either. But all the 
same you must remember that Mrs. Fairlie is a 
very important person in the town, in her own esti- 
mation if in nobody else’s, and it won’t do for you 
to go offending her. Just fancy if anybody saw you 
actually laughing at her in the street.” 

44 They did,” shouted Bob, with a great laugh — 
44 1 just roared. And I tell you I had to go into 
Fuller’s, the gunsmith’s, and I laughed so I had to 
tell him what I was laughing at. I couldn’t help 
jnyself.” 

44 Oh ! Fuller is safe enough — he won’t talk about 
it to anybody likely to repeat it to the Fairlies,” 
Mrs. Bob remarked. 4< But, all the same, Bob, I 
shouldn’t go doing that kind of thing again if I were 


170 


MRS. BOB. 


you. Remember, we are new people here, and it 
won’t be very pleasant if we begin by making our- 
selves unpopular.” 

Bob put on a look of comic dismay — “ That is the 
way Maimie always bullies me,” he remarked to 
Julia — “ that’s the way you will bully Steve when 
you have been married as many years as we have.” 

“ Oh ! very much worse than that,” answered 
Julia gaily, and then she looked at Stephen and 
smiled and Stephen smiled back at her, and this 
sent Bob into such an ecstacy of enjoyment that he 
was obliged to wink at his wife and then bolt out of 
the room to have his laugh out elsewhere. 

But nobody could be offended at Bob Markham’s 
fun and Julia found him the most delightful 
brother-in-law in the whole world in spite of the fact 
that Anthony Staunton had his own tender niche 
within her heart. 

And he was so generous too, for notwithstanding' 
that but a few weeks before Julia’s most beautiful 
wedding gift had come from the Markhams, she 
found among her letters on Christmas morning a 
receipted bill from Botwood of Ipswich for a charm- 
ing single brougham, the like of which Julia had 
greatly envied his wife having the possession, that 
is if such a word can be applied to a genuine out- 
spoken admiration for the belongings of another 
person. 

Really there was ample grounds for the remark 
which Mrs. Trafford at that time was in the habit 
of making to such persons as questioned her about 


A LITTLE CLOUD. 


171 


the last marring^. “ Oil ! yes. I am perfectly satis- 
fied with the marriage, perfectly.” 

Not that such an endorsement in itself was cal- 
culated to carry much weight with the people of 
BlankhamptoD. When a woman talked about the 
happiness of her newly - married daughter, the 
words generally conveyed that there was plenty of 
money and that if Mary or Margaret was not happy 
she ought to be. But in this instance there was 
the tall and handsome young husband to show 
that the bride ought to thank Providence for her 
fate, and also there was the bride’s own happy face 
and air of assured gaiety and satisfiedness, so Blank- 
hamptoa accepted Mrs. Trafford’s verdict on the 
marriage without a word of disapproval or even a 
sniff, and once more the word went round that the 
little widow in St* Eve’s was really a very remark- 
able woman. 


CHAPTER XV. 

A LITTLE CLOUD. 

u Wisdom is oft-times nearer when we stoop, 

Than when we soar.” 

W ORD SWO RTH. 

After remaining about a fortnight at Brentwood, 
Stephen Howard and his wife w r ent back to their 
London home and almost immediately Mrs. Trafford 
paid them a short visit on her way to Little Street 
Hall, where lived the two Miss Staunton s, two old 


172 


MRS. BOB. 


ladies who were half-aunts to Sir Anthony Staunton 
and from whom he had great expectations. 

Whilst Mrs. Trafford was in Victoria Street, the 
Bob Markhams came up to Town and put up at the 
Metropole. “ Why couldn’t you come to us ? ” cried 
Julia, who like all young wives was hospitably 
anxious to entertain all her friends. 

“ Oh ! no, my dear, many thanks,” Mrs. Boh 
returned. “ We are used to an hotel and I am sure 
yoi* and Stephen are better off without us. Visitors 
to young married people are a great mistake. No, 
my dear Mrs. Trafford, you need not look up — I do 
not mean you. You are a lady and alone — it is 
different. I daresay I could come and stop a week 
or so with Julia and she would never know I was in 
the house, but a married couple are so different. If 
we are at an hotel Bob can come in and out without 
consulting anyone, and somehow a man always 
does want to be bolting in and out of the house 
like a dog at a fair. He can have all sorts of people 
coming, to see him on business, and really it is 
surprising what a lot of people he has to see about 
various improvements at Manor Lodge. And besides 
these things Bob often wants me to go out and see 
something or buy something and he would be sure 
to want to go just when we were going to do some- 
thing else ; so believe me, my dear, it is the best in 
every way for us to stop at the Metropole.” 

“Well, perhaps,” Julia admitted. ‘‘Only don’t 
say that I did not ask you, beg you to come to us.” 

“ My dear, I never will,” Mrs. Bob replied smiling. 


A LITTLE CLOUD. 


173 


The following day Mrs. Trafford went off to Little 
Street and Julia and Stephen were left alone again 
— after a few more days quite alone, for the Markhams 
returned to Blankhampton. 

They were very happy — a good many people were 
in Town that they knew, there always seemed to be 
dinners and other parties going on, every day they 
became acquainted with more people and Julia set 
up a “ day,” when the pretty flat in Victoria Street 
became quite a centre of attraction. Altogether 
Julia had a much gayer life than she had ever had 
before, for Stephen did not seem to care much about 
sitting quietly at home and if they were not engaged 
for the evening, generally suggested a theatre. So 
the neat brougham was frequently in requisition 
and they did not know what it was to grow tired of 
one another’s society. 

“Stephen,” said Julia one morning towards the 
end of January, when he had thrown across the table 
a letter from Bob Markham giving an enthusiastic 
description of a glorious run they had had the 
previous day with the Blankshire Hounds — “ I 
thought you were so passionately fond of hunting.” 

“ So I am,” he answered. 

“ Then when are you going to begin ? ” she 

asked. 

Stephen Howard settled his arms comfortably on 
the table and looked at her with a smile. “ Well,” 
he answered, “a few months ago I was keen on it, 
desperately keen on it, but somehow I am perfectly 
happy where I am — I can hunt a bit next winter.” 


174 


MRS. BOB. 


“And don’t you think you will be perfectly happy 
next winter ? ” she demanded. 

“ I think I shall ; but I shall have grown more 
used to being happy, ’ he replied. 

“ Stevie,” she said suddenly — “ Why did Maimie 
and Bob persist in staying at the Metropole instead 
of coming here ? ” 

“ I think only because they fancied that they 
would be in the way,” he returned. “ Why ? ” 

“ Oh ! for no particular reason,” she replied — 
“ only I was rather puzzled by something I heard 
Maimie say.” 

“ What did she say ? ” he asked. 

“ It was not to me — but I heard her tell Bob, and 
I couldn’t help hearing it for I was writing a letter 
in the boudoir, and Bob said — ‘ Oh ! much better 
not,’ and then Maimie said — c Oh ! it would not do at 
all — besides Steve can come to us whenever it is 
necessary.’ I can’t think what she meant.” 

“ Nor I,” said he. “ Oh ! I suppose they were 
only thinking that it is best to leave spoony people 
alone as much as possible.” 

“ But we’re not very spoony,” cried Julia. 

“ But indeed we are,” laughed Stephen — “at least 
I know I am.” 

“But what could she mean about its being 
necessary for you to go to them ? ” 

He laughed — “ Why, my darling, you are getting 
quite a little inquisitor. But I will explain — you 
know old Bob and I have a lot of property that is 
pretty much mixed up one with the other. Well, 


A LITTLE CLOUD. 


175 


often enough, matters have to be arranged between 
us as to how such and such things shall be sold or 
kept as the case may be.” 

“ And what sort of property is it ? ” Julia asked. 

“Oh! well, all sorts,” he answered — “for instance 
we have some land out there which were are keeping 
on because we still hope to find gold on it ” 

“But I thought you sold all your property in 
Australia,” she exclaimed. 

“ My father’s property — the estate that we lived 
on when I was a boy — yes,” he answered. “ But 
this is quite a different affair.” 

“ Then supposing that you do find gold,” said 
Julia — “ then I suppose we shall be awfully rich.” 

“ We shall be very rich then.” he answered. 

“ And where is it ? ” 

“ Well, that is just what we don’t know, what we 
have got to find out,” he said. 

“ No, no, I don’t mean the gold, I mean the 
place,” she said, “ the gold is in the earth, of 
course.” 

“ Oh ! the property — Well, the exact spot is called 
Blindman’s Drift,” he replied — “ the Estate is called 
4 Ballydowne.’ ” 

“ And why ? ” 

Stephen Howard burst out laughing. “Why — 
well, you might as well ask me why I was called 
Stephen Howard,” he cried. “ It was called so when 
Bob and I went in for it as a speculation and w 
have never troubled to alter it.” 

“ Then does Maimie know about it ? " 


176 


MRS. BOB. 


“Maimie” — looking puzzled. “Why my dear 

child, Maimie knows every inch of the place.” 

“ I should like to know every inch of the place 
too,” said Julia — “ I don’t like Maimie to know 
more about you than I do.” 

Stephen laughed and caught her hand in his. 
“My dear little sweetheart, I believe you are a little 
jealous of Maimie,” he cried. 

“ Very jealous,” corrected Julia — “ of every one 
who knows more about your affairs than I do.” 

He began to look grave. “ My darling, my own 
love,” he said — “ you must know that there is 
nothing in all the world (hat I would willingly keep 
from you. But there is a difference between keep- 
ing back anything of importance and boring you 
and wasting our precious time by explaining 
exactly what shares I have got in this, what patch 
of land I possess here or hold together with Bob or 
Maimie. You see when my father died, Maimie 
and I shared alike in everything and as we neither 
of us wanted to throw a lot of money away by a 
strict division there and then, we agreed to hold 
over until the proper time came. In order to help 
matters Bob insisted upon my being Maimie’s 
trustee, so you see, I am always having to arrange 
odd bits of business with Bob for her and with 
her.” 

“ I see,” returned Julia thoughtfully. 

It was so simple and clear an explanation that she 
felt she could not say anything more about it. She 
felt that if she was not satisfied, she ought to be so, 


A LITTLE CLOUD. 


177 


that she would be an unreasonable woman, who did 
not deserve to have a devoted husband and the 
income from twenty thousand pounds for her own 
expenditure without having to render an account 
of a single penny to anyone in all the world. 

And yet Julia was not altogether satisfied. She 
felt that Stephen carried his business affairs to his 
sister as naturally as he had always done, she felt 
that she was being kept in the dark, that in a 
certain sense, she was the toy, the amusement, the 
doll, whom he loved and was proud of, and she 
pined to be what Maimie was, the confidant of his 
business affairs. 

Still she did not like to say anything, she was so 
sure of his love for her, his pride in her, of his 
desire to keep nothing from her — only she had that 
uncomfortable feeling that in spite of his love and 
his pride, that Maimie came first in his calculations 
and she came the second. Now no woman in the 
wide world likes to be second when she feels she 
ought to be the first and Julia Howard was no 
exception to the rule. It would have done no good 
if she had explained as much to Stephen — he would 
have said and naturally enough, that Maimie 
understood business, particularly Australian business, 
while she did not, that he not only did not want to 
talk over his sister’s affairs, finding them quite 
trouble enough as it was and even if he did it would 
scarcely be quite honourable to Maimie. 

However Julia did not say anything to her 
husband about this, so he did not make the remarks 

12 


178 


MRS. BOB. 


which he would inevitably have made had she done 
so. So this risk to their married happiness passed 
over without coming near enough to endanger it. 

How odd it is that most husbands and wives 
generally begin their life together in much the same 
way. The wife’s past is to be not only an open 
book but a sheet of blank paper too. Her husband 
is to share her most secret thoughts, he is to guide 
as well as protect her, she is his darling, his angel, 
his little wife, his everything. But on the other 
hand how different it all is. The man takes a 
positive pride in not having been a sheet of blank 
paper, and if he opens the book of his past life it is 
generally found not fit for publication ! The wife 
who must share her inmost thoughts with him must 
not pry too closely into his past, and he will just at 
first, in the very early days of their marriage, even 
go so far as to say. that he cannot tell her so and 
so, because it would be a breach of confidence. “ It 
is nothing to do with you,” he will say — “ it is only a 
little business matter between my mother and me,” 
or “ mv sister and me ” as the case may be. 

It is this phase which is so hard for a new-made 
wife to bear — but happily it does not last long. In 
spite of the open book, blank sheet of paper, the 
guided and protected idea, with which a man starts 
as a husband, if the wife be ordinarily wise and 
judicious, in the course of a year there is nothing, 
I repeat it emphatically nothing that the ordinary 
man will voluntarily keep from her. They say that 
a woman cannot keep a secret! Well, there may 


A LITTLE CLOUD. 


179 


be something in that but I know that I would 
rather trust any woman I ever knew sooner than I 
would trust myself to keep anything from the dear 
and charming lady whom I call the wife of my 
bosom. I might try — I might start with a valiant 
theory that wild horses should not drag it from me. 
True, wild horses would be as powerless against my 
stern resolve as unfledged nestlings of an hour old, 
but I should have to tell Nell all the same. She 
might be wholly unsuspicious, she might even go 
so far as not to wish to know — but I should have to 
tell her all the same. 

“What do you say, gentle reader? Very weak 
of me ! Perhaps ! But I can tell you this, if you 
are a man who honours this page with your atten- 
tion, you are not a married man, if you are of the 
gentler sex and you are also a married lady, you 
must have been singularly injudicious in your 
treatment of “ him ” or you would recognize the 
fidelity and truth of the remarks I have just set 
down. 

Oh ! you ask why is it so ! Faith, that is a diffi- 
cult question to answer. I do not know — not 
because I have ever had a quarrel with my spouse, 
perhaps because I have never had one. Well, well, 
be that as it may, I have told you how the little cloud 
no bigger than a man’s hand arose on the matri- 
monial horizon of two lives — for the rest I must ask 
you to read on. 


12 * 


160 


MRS. BOB. 


CHAPTER XVI. 

* ( SUPPOSING * 

** Strange is the heart of man, with its quick, mysteriou» 
instincts ! 

Strange is the life of man, and fatal or fated are moments 
Whereupon turn — as on hinges — the gate of the wall ada« 
mantine.” 

— Miles Standish. 

The following day the Markhams quite unexpectedly 
came up to Town again for a couple of days. As 
Mrs. Bob explained to Julia, Bob had bustled her 
up to look at a certain set of fittings for one of the 
Manor Lodge stables, which he could have done just 
as well without her, and in the evening Stephen 
and his wife dined at the Metropole with them, 
having an idea of going on to the Criterion to see 
Wyndham in “ David Garrick ” afterwards, that is if 
seats were to be had. It happened that Stephen 
was the only one of the four who had seen the 
piece and the sisters in law were quite eager about 
it. Stephen, therefore, dropped his wife at the 
hotel and drove round to the Cri’ to find out if there 
were places to be had, and presently he came back 
with the news that there was one box left which he 
had secured. 


SUPPOSING ” 


181 


44 That will be lovely,” cried Mrs. Bob, who, poor 
little woman, was quite in ignorance of the little 
cloud in Julia’s mind. “ I do like a box so much 
better than stalls, although perhaps you scarcely see 
quite so well. But you can go in ten minutes late 
without annoying a dozen people and the men can go 
out and what they call 4 walk round ’ between the 
acts without treading on three or four other women’s 
toes.” 

44 Never go out till after the second act,” put in 
Bob. 44 Come along Julia, my dear, let us go down 
to dinner now.” 

Mrs. Bob laughed — 46 Bob is quite touchy about 
walking round,” she cried teasingly. 44 Oh ! by-the- 
bye, Julia, dear, I have just had a letter from Lady 
Lucifer and they have had the biggest robbery in 
Blankhampton that they have ever had yet.” 

44 What another? ” cried Julia standing stock-still 
in the corridor. 

44 My dear,” replied Mrs. Bob impressively -— 44 they 
have got all the Civic plate — the sword and mace, 
the Mayor and Mayoress’s chains of office, they 
have got her ladyship’s diamonds, they have got 
everything. My dear, it is wicked to laugh at the 
misfortunes of others, but when I think of the sword 
and mace I can’t help laughing. And when I read 
Violet Lucifer’s letter, I just roared.” 

44 But Maimie,” exclaimed Julia in an awed voice 

“Where will they stop? Where will they go 

next ? ” 

44 Impossible to say,” answered Mrs. Bob — 44 but 


182 


MRS. BOB. 


depend upon it the sword and mace Jhave been 
boiled down long before this and the chains and all 
the big silver candlesticks too. And what they’ll do 
at the banquets and parties I can’t think, for I’m 
sure there isn’t money enough in Blankhampton to 
buy any new ones.” 

Julia tried to think — tried to realize what Assize 
Sunday would be like without the insignia of civic 
state and dignity to give an air of splendour to the 
scene, tried and failed. 

“ Well,” she said, as she unfolded her serviette — 
“ I’m very glad I don’t live in Blankhampton any 
longer. It did not matter as long as I had nothing 
to lose but I should be very sorry to lose all the 
pretty things I have now.” 

“ Of course, you would,” Mrs. Bob returned — “ I 
know I felt losing my things badly enough. If you 
will believe me I keep what I’ve got left about me 
night and day, and I sent every silver tea-spoon we 
had to the bank before we came away. Just as well, 
for as likely as not they would all have been gone 
when we got home again.” 

It was a charming little dinner that they enjoyed 
that evening, at the comfortable little table in the 
cosiest corner of the great dining-room, which Bob 
had reserved for himself and his wife’s use during 
their stay in the hotel. And Julia, when she was 
made much of by the other three, quite as much of 
by Bob and his wife as she was by Stephen, began to 
feel that she was a mean little wretch and nothing 
less to be givinghouse-room to such a feeling as had 


“ SUPPOSING ’ 


A83 


taken tlie shape of a little cloud no bigger than a 
man s hand. 

They got somehow during the course of the meal 
to talking about a great murder-case just then occu- 
pying the attention of the newspapers, a case in 
which a wife who outwardly had all the appearance 
of devotedly nursing a sick husband only to be con- 
fronted by his relatives with a charge of wilful and 
deceitful murder, of using affectionate solicitude for 
his welfare as a cloak under which to administer a 
deadly poison. 

“ I think she’ll get off,” said Bob. 

“I hope she will,” cried Julia — “poor thing, it 
must be bad enough to lose your husband without 
being accused of killing him.” 

“ It must be pretty bad to be standing in a dock 
on a charge of murder whether you happen to have 
done it or not,” put in Stephen thoughtfully. 

“ Oh ! horrible,” Julia answered. “ We knew a 
man who was charged with murder, but only at the 
inquest, you know. And we knew the man who 
was murdered too. They were both in the Blank- 
shire Begiment.” 

“ Then he didn’t do it ? ” said Stephen. “ The 
man who was had up I mean.” 

“ Oh ! no — they were the greatest friends possible. 
But they never found out who did do it, all the 
same. I remember Mr. Beresford — he was such a 
nice fellow ; he married Nancy Earle, a great heiress, 
afterwards — told us when he came back that often 
enough during the few days that he was in prison, 


184 


MRS. BOB. 


he used to wonder what it would feel like to be 
hanged for the murder of his best friend who he 
would cheerfully give ten years of his life to bring 
back again.” 

“ And you think he didn’t do it,” said Stephen. 

“ I am as sure that he did not as I can be of 
anything which I have not seen with my own eyes,” 
Julia answered. “ And if they had convicted him 
and hanged him they would still not have convinced 
me that he did it. I should always have believed 
in him,” she added quite warmly. 

“ But why ? ” 

“ Because I believed in him. He was not capable 
of murdering anybody, to say nothing of murdering 
his best friend without the smallest reason for doing 
so.” 

“ You are a good friend, Juey,” said Stephen 
Howard smiling at her — “ and I think I may take 
it for granted that if ever I am accused of murder — 

“ Which God forbid,” put in Bob Markham with 
sudden earnestness. 

“ Thank you, Bob,” said Stephen — “ but,” con- 
tinuing to his wife — “ I may take it for granted that 
you will believe in me and stick to me.” 

Julia smiled back at him. “Yes, I think you 
may,” she answered — “ I should believe in you 
whatever might happen to you, whatever you were 
accused of. ’ 

“ That’s good hearing,” put in Bob, but Stephen 
Howard said nothing, only looked at his wife with 
such a world of love and trust in his brave eyes that 


/ 


“ SUPPOSING ’ 


185 


instinctively Julia’s guilty thoughts sped back to 
that little cloud and her own drooped before the 
glory of his in a kind of shame, of which, neverthe- 
less, she was a little proud. 

It was Mrs. Bob who broke the silence. “ I 
believe that poor soul will get off, but do you know 
the hardest part of it all to me is that it is her own 
sisters who are giving the strongest evidence against 
her, all the evidence there is, in fact. I never can 
understand that. I never had a sister, so that I 
don’t know how sisters feel to each other, but I don’t 
think I should go and help to tie the rope round 
her neck whatever she had done.” 

“ Well, I have a sister,” Julia exclaimed, still a 
little moved by that look of Stephen’s — “ and I 
know that if I had actually seen her murder some- 
body, I would still do my best to get her off. I 
should be sorry, of course, hurt, grieved — but I would 
not help to hang my own sister. No, I don’t think it 
ought to be expected of anyone. I don’t indeed.” 

. <e Then you would be wrong,” said Bob Markham 
drily. 

“I shouldn’t care,” persisted Julia promptly. 

6i But the law would very soon make you care — 
you would find yourself in the dock too as an acces- 
sory after the act.” 

“ I would rather be that than peach on % my own 
sister,” Julia said with determination — “ and if the 
law did pounce down on me, every body outside the 
law would side with me.” 

“ Yes, that is true,” putin Mrs. Bob quietly — 


18 « 


MRS.^OB. 

« yon would be tbe heroine of the day even if you 
did get a term of hard labour.” 

Stephen shuddered. “ I don’t know if you are aware 
of it,” he said — “but you have got into a most 
gruesome subject of conversation. I don’t know 
whether Julia has ever been tried for murder either 
as a principal or as an accessory, but I believe not — 
of the others I am tolerably sure. And I hope that 
none of us will ever find ourselves in that distress- 
ing situation either with cause or without it. But 
until that contingency does arise I really do not see 
that we need harrow ourselves by deciding what we 
should or should not do.” 

“ And I think that it is time that we went off to 
the theatre,” said Mrs. Bob wisely. 

They all got up then and Julia slipped her hand 
under her husband’s arm as they left the table. 
u Oh ! Stevie,” she said — “ I am so glad you said 
that — do you know I was getting quite nervous. 
I began to feel as if I was actually already in the 
dock. I did really.” 

Stephen Howard squeezed the little hand within 
his arm. “ Old Bob is a good sort,” he said ten- 
derly — “ but his idea of humour is very dense — and 
you might cut his jokes with a knife. Don’t let 
your mind dwell on it, my darling.” 

“ No,”, she said, “ I won’t,” and then she began to 
think what a fine fellow her Stevie was and what a 
lucky girl she had been to meet with him, and then 
she began to think of that little cloud until she 
fairly blushed with contrition and shame. 


HALT? EXPLAINED— WHOLLY PUZZLED. 187 


CHAPTER XVII. 

HALF EXPLAINED — WHOLLY PUZZLED. 

“ No action, whether foul or fair, 

Is ever done, but it leaves somewhere 
A record.” — The Golden Legend. 

Thus January crept over and February came in, and 
early in February Julia received an invitation from 
Marcus Orford’s mother, Lady Ceespring, asking her 
and her husband to spend a few days with them at 
Orford Place. 

“ My boy and Madge will be here,” Lady Cee- 
spring said in her letter— “ indeed they have been 
here but are now gone on a short visit to Brookfield 
and will be back early next week. The baby flour- 
ishes finely and is a very beautiful person, and what 
his devoted grandmother feels like when she re- 
members and altogether fails to realize that she is a 
grandmother, I cannot find words to express to 
you.” 

So at the appointed time Stephen and his wife 
left London for Leicestershire, and in due course 
arrived at Orford Place. And at Orford Place from 
some reason or other the little cloud sprang into 
life again and grew a little. It all came about 


188 


MRS. BOR. 


through no real reason and without any legitimate 
cause, and yet there it was and it was larger and 
blacker and uglier than when first it had loomed 
upon their horizon. In the first place Stephen had 
a letter from Mrs. Bob. It came up with their 
other letters with the morning tea and Julia with- 
out having the smallest idea of wishing to pry into 
her husband’s correspondence, could not help seeing 
that the letter had an enclosure. Stephen handed 
her the letter with a careless “there’s one from 
Maimie” but the enclosure he put back into the 
envelope and the envelope he put aside on the little 
table beside the bed. 

It would have taken a bolder and harder woman 
than Julia was, to have spoken out plainly and say 
that she wanted t^ see the other part of Mrs. Bob’s 
letter. And Julia was neither bold nor hard, she 
only was very much in love with her husband and 
wanted him to tell her every thought that came 
into his mind, to share with her his every care, 
sorrow, pleasure or joy that had part or parcel in 
his life. So she read Mrs., Bob’s bright pleasant 
chatty letter without a word of comment and won- 
dered what was in the other part of it and why 
Stephen had not shown it to her ? 

She saw him put it carelessly into his pocket 
presently — with the carelessness which a man 
always characterises by the word “ shove ” — evi- 
dently it was a matter of but the smallest conse- 
quence to him, so she tried to think it was nothing 
more than some matter of business about which he 




HALF EXPLAINED— WHOLLY PUZZLED. 189 

supposed she could have neither curiosity nor 
interest. 

In itself this incident might have passed over 
and Julia have thought no more about it, but the 
following day, as soon as they had finished lunch 
and Lady Ceespring asked Stephen if he would care 
to drive to the nearest town with several of the 
ladies who were going in to attend a charity bazaar, 
he excused himself by saying that he would rather 
not, if Lady Ceespring would mind his remaining at 
home, as* he had several rather urgent business 
letters to write before post-time. 

<f Oh ! just do as you like,” Lady Ceespring said 
kindly. “ This bazaar will not be a very interesting 
affair, only it is for an excellent charity and they 
will expect us to stand by them and spend a little 
money there.” 

“ I will give my wife some money to spend for 
me,” he said quickly. “ And Juey, if you happen 
to see anything very neat in the shape of a pipe-rack 
you might bring it for me.” 

“ But what do you want it for, Stevie ? ” she cried 
— “ you have a pipe-rack already.” 

“I know — but when Bob and Maimie were up 
last time, Bob admired my pipe-rack immensely and 
said he must treat himself to one. So if you happen 
to see a decent-looking one at this bazaar, you may 
as well secure it.” 

“ Oh ! very well,” she replied. “ There is sure to 
be one, probably a dozen.” # 

“ But don’t bring a dozen,” he cried in alarm. 


190 


MS. BOB. 


He saw them off, standing on the steps of the , 
great entrance to watch them go, and Julia felt quite 
a little thrill of pride rush through her as she waved 
her hand in farewell. 

44 My dear,” whispered Madge in her sweet soft 
tones — 44 you are a lucky girl — Stephen is delight- 
fur* — at which Julia blushed up to the very roots of 
her hair and found herself smiling into Lady 
Ceespring’s blue seraphic eyes. Lady Ceespring 
had caught the import of her daughter-in-law’s 
whisper. 

44 Very charming,” she said, with her serene 
smile. 

So Julia went off and spent the ten pounds which 
her husband had given her for that purpose, and also 
a little more of her own, because she was so happy. 
She was lucky too and went back to Or ford Place 
laden with a particularly handsome pipe-rack, a china 
stand for flowers, two very tolerable needle -work 
cushions for which she had put into raffles, a framed 
artist’s-proof etching which she had won in the 
same way and a huge and elaborately-dressed doll 
which she had won out of a hundred and fifty 
subscribers. 

44 Really, Julia,” said Madge, as they packed her 
cousin's belongings away — 44 you have had all the 
luck to-day. I have quite ruined myself with raffles 
and I have got nothing to show for my money except 
a box of burnt almonds I got out of the fish-pond. 
Have one ? ” v 

Julia helped herself out of the small box and held 


HALF EXPLAINED— WHOLLY PUZZLED. 191 


up the pipe-rack for Mrs. Orford’s inspection. “I 
'should think that will be the very thing for Steve,” 
she said. 

“ Oh ! it’s lovely,” cried Madge, turning it round 
with genuine admiration — “ I should think Stephen 
will be immensely pleased and Mr. Markham more 
than pleased.” 

So in quite a flush of pride Julia looked round for 
her husband when they got into the hall and, not 
seeing him there, put down her purchases on the 
large hall-table and ran up to their room, which was 
on the same corridor as her cousin’s and Lady 
Ceespring’s own suite of apartments. 

“ Stevie, are you here ? ” she asked — then saw him 
sitting at the writing-table in the dressing-room — 
“ Why, Stevie,” she cried, “ you haven't written a 
single letter. How awfully lazy of you.” 

“ My dear cjiild,” he answered — “ I have been 
writing all the afternoon — the post went out half an 
hour ago.” . 

“Oh! really,” she ^aid — then she sat down on the 
arm of his chair and slipped her arm about his neck. 
“ Who have you been writing to ? ” she asked — Oh ! 
yes, yes, yes, my gentle critic, very ungrammatical 
of her, I know, nevertheless that was exactly what 
she did say, so I beg you’ll not blame me in the 
matter. 

Stephen let his head slip back against her shoulder, 
and as she was wearing a seal skin coat, a very nice 
and warm resting-place he found it. “ Who have I 
been writing to ?” he repeated,/ “ Well, let me see 


192 


MRS. BOB. 


— I wrote to Johns the stock-broker and told him to 
sell out all the Nitrates I have sharp — then I wrote 
to Dickson and told him I would go to a hundred and 
thirty for that bay horse we saw on Saturday — I sent 
a cheque to that fool of a tailor who wants one to pay 
for one’s clothes in the street, lest you clear out of 
the country and make him a bad debt. Then I wrote 
to Nicholson, the lawyer, about that bill of Warring- 
ton’s which I think exorbitant, and I sent a cheque 
to Hervey and Bondwell. I think that was all 
except a line to Maimie.” 

u Oh ! you wrote to Maimie ? ” said Julia in 
a different tone. “ Why did you write to her 
to-day ? ” 

“ Why — well really, I don’t know. I had finished 
my other letters and there was no sign of you coming 
back again, so I wrote to her. Grave her your love 
and all that.” 

“ Oh ! I see,” she said coldly. 

She got off the edge of the chair and began to 
unfasten her jacket — Stephen turned in his seat and 
watched her, as he often did, with all his soul in her 
eyes ; then finding that she was ready to go down he 
got up and went towards her. 

“ Grive me a kiss before we go down,” he said. 

“ Oh ! how silly you are, Stephen,” cried Julia 
pettishly, the remembrance of that letter written and 
sent off without having been shown to her still 
sticking in her mind. 

“ Silly — Stephen ! ” he exclaimed, for she had 
never before appeared to find his love-making 


HALE EXPLAINED— WHOLLY PUZZLED. 193 

irksome to her and she always abbreviated his 
name into the more tender form of “ Stevie ” — 
“Why, Jney — my darling,” he cried in a pained 
tone. 

She was softened in a moment and flung her arms 
round him — “ I am horrid — horrid — horrid,” she 
cried with a passionate burst of tears — “A horrid 
jealous mean little cat. I shall wear your love out, 
weary you of me, and then I hope I shall die for life 
won’t be worth living any longer.” 

Stephen was baffled and puzzled by all this, he 
had not the faintest idea what it meant, not the 
smallest suspicion of all that was working in his 
little wife’s mind. But he held her in his arms and 
soothed her and petted her like a hurt child. “ My 
dear — my love — my little wife, don’t cry like that,” 
he entreated. “ What did I do, dear ? What did I 
say to upset you like this ? ” 

But Julia was now a trifle ashamed — well, if the 
truth be told, very much ashamed of her outburst, and 
she gave him no explanation as she rested her head 
against his broad shoulder. Stephen now, however, 
was bent upon getting to the bottom of the mystery. 
“ You said you were jealous, just now, darling,” he 
said — “but what are you jealous of — not of me, 
surely ? ' You didn’t think the letters were a blind 
and that I stayed at home to flirt with one of the 
other women, did you ? Oh ! you couldn’t,” he 
added laughing at his own suggestion. " You 
couldn’t — it’s too ridiculous for words. You didn’t 
think that, did you ? ” 


13 


194 


MRS. BOB. 


But Julia still had nothing to say and instead of 
answering she began to trace imaginary patterns with 
her fingers in the blotting book which was lying open 
on the table. Then she began to follow the lines of 
the work on which he or someone else had been em- 
ployed and of which traces were left on the blotting 
paper. 

“ What have you been doing here, Stevie ? ” 
she asked suddenly — “ designing a plan for a 
shooting lodge ? ” 

Stephen Howard pulled the book gently yet 
forcibly from under her hand and closed it. “I 
want to know what upset you so, my sweetheart,” he 
asked, and he spoke in the tone of a man who meant 
to have his question answered. 

“ Well, Stevie,” said Julia contritely — for as usual 
the cloud seemed to shrink when she was very near 
to him — “ I was tired and — and I am an idiot,” she 
ended ingenuously. 

“Yes — yes — but what made you jealous?” he * 
asked, a shade impatiently. 

“ I think I am always a little jealous of Maimie,” 
she admitted at last, very unwillingly. 

“Jealous of Maimie,” he echoed incredulously. 

“ Why, I never heard of such a thing in my life — 
never. If it had been anyone else, I cotfld under- 
stand it ; but Maimie, my own sister — why, it’s pre- 
posterous ! ” 

“ Yes — but I didn’t mean like that at all,” Julia 
cried — 

66 1 should hope not,” he rejoined quickly — then 


HALF EXPLAINED— WHOLLY PUZZLED. 105 

added in the gentlest tone of reproach, e< I thought 
you were so fond of Maimie.” 

<c So I am,” Julia cried, “ but — but Stevie, I want 
to be everything to you.” 

e£ So you are — everything,” he answered. 

“ You are quite quite sure ? ” she cried. 

w I am quite sure,” he replied sturdily. 

“ Everything” she persisted. 

“ Everything,” he rejoined. “ More than all the 
world beside, no, more than a million worlds if I 
could have my choice of them all.” 

Julia sighed, a sigh full of contentment and love 
— it was delightful to her to be loved like this and 
she let her head rest against his shoulder again in 
ineffable bliss and satisfaction. “ It is only because 
I love you so,” she said, “ that I am so afraid that I 
am not quite everything to you that I want to be. I 
am awfully stupid, but I won’t be stupid any more 
— never any more, Stevie.” 

“ Then kiss me,” cried Stevie, taking advantage of 
the situation instantly. 

And Julia kissed him willingly enough ! Then 
they went down stairs together, and Julia was the 
gayest of the gay, and Stephen as he watched her, 
blessed her in his heart and thanked Heaven fer- 
vently that he had seen and wooed and won her for 
his very ‘own. 

“ N or was he careful to hide what he felt. (t [ 
don’t know whether you noticed it, Markv,” said 
Mrs. Orford to her husband whilst they were dress- 
ing for dinner that evening — “ but Julia’s husband 

13 * 


196 


MRS. BOB. 


is perfectly ‘ gone 5 upon her, he is awfully in love 
with her yet. Isn’t it wonderful ? ” 

“ Yes — wonderful. I think so every time I look 
at her,” answered Marcus Orford, promptly. 

“ But she is marvellously improved,” said she 
quickly, “ don’t you think so ? ” 

“ Oh ! dear yes, she has grown quite pretty,” he 
said with decision. 

e< And she has grown so gentle and good-natured 
too,” Madge went on. “ Before, you know, when 
we were all girls, Julia used to be a bit touchy at 
times — but now, why she will do anything for you 
at all. Just now I asked her where she got that 
pretty frilling she was wearing and she said — 6 1 got 
it in Regent Street but I forget the number. I’ll 
look it out and write you the name down.’ ” 

Now it happened just about that time that Julia 
Howard had gone up to her bedroom feeling very 
happy and restful, and lest she should forget it after- 
wards she went straight to the writing-table and 
turned over a little box of finery which was lying 
there, until she found the little bill which had 
been enclosed with the frilling which her cousin 
had so much admired. 

‘‘Yes, that is it,” she said to herself — “ I’ll just 
write the address down and give it to Madge.” 

As soon done as thought almost, and Julia, laid 
the sheet of paper on which was written the address 
between the leaves of the blotting-book and 
smoothed it down with her hand. In doing so she 
happened to notice that the top leaf of the book 


DAILY LIFE. 


197 


was as nearly as possible unmarked by ink-stains. 
“ Why ! ” she exclaimed aloud — (i that was where 
Stevie was drawing those little plans — Yes, surely it 
was.” 

She turned the leaves of the book over and over 
— No, there was now not the least trace of those 
little plans, and there was a distinct trace of a leaf 
having been torn out. 

How very strange — she turned the book over and 
over — Yes, it was the same, but why had Stephen 
torn the page out ? Perhaps he had been drawing 
idly on the paper and it was not a blotting mark at 
all. Anyway it was an odd thing to have done, and 
Julia folded the paper on which the Eegent Street 
address was written and took it to the dressing-table 
feeling very much puzzled indeed. 


CHAPTER XVIII. 

DAILY LIFE. 

“ Blest in the present, look not forth 
On ills beyond, but smooth each bitter 
"With slow calm smile. No suns on earth 
Unclouded glitter.” 

The letter to Mrs. Bob which had caused Julia 
Howard to shed the first tears that had come into 
her eyes since she was married, (with the exception 
of the night when she had sat and sobbed over 
David Garrick) reached the little lady at Brentwood 


198 


MRS. BOB. 


in due course the following morning. Bob and she 
were early people and were already half way through 
their breakfast when the post-bag came. “ One for 
you,” said Bob, handing Stephen’s letter across the 
table — “ and this — and this — and this. That’s all. 
Madam.” 

He often called her Madam in a joking way 
when they were alone, and Mrs. Bob, who had 
already opened Stephen’s letter and was engrossed 
by it, held out her hand for the other letters without 
so much as raising her eyes. 

“My, but it must be a fine place,” she ob- 
served presently — “ forty people staying in the 
house, and Stephen says the gold plate is some- 
thing gorgeous.” 

“ Whew ! ” whistled Bob softly. 

Mrs. Bob still did not look up. She had taken 
up the second part of the letter and was examining 
it closely. 

“ What’s that ? ” Bob asked. 

Mrs. Bob handed him the sheet of paper, on 
which was sketched a careful little plan, very 
much the same as Julia had noticed 'in the blotting 
book. 

“ Oh ! he has sent it,” Bob remarked in a tone of 
pleased surprise — “ that’s very good business — -just 
what we want, in fact. How did he find time to do 
it?” 

" Julia and all the ladies have gone off to a bazaar 
at a place some miles away, so I cried off and am 
writing letters in my own room. I shall probably 


DAILY LIFE. 


199 


not write again whilst I am here,” Mrs. Bob read 
aloud from Stephen’s letter — <£ but I will tell you 
everything later on.” 

“ That is all right. Then I had better take care 
of this,” said Bob, folding the sheet of paper and 
putting it carefully away in his pocket-book. “ By 
the by, what are you going to do to-day ? ” 

“ 1 am going into totfn,” Mrs. Bob replied — 
<£ Mrs. Trafford has promised to come out and spend 
a few days with me.” 

££ A11 right. Then you won’t want me at 
all ? ” 

£c No. What time will you be in to dinner ? ” 

££ Eight o’clock. Is anyone coming ? ” 

££ Not unless I ask some one to-day,” his wife an- 
swered. 

££ Oh ! very well. I shall be back in time any- 
way.” 

He went out presently in a man’s careless and 
casual kind of way, sauntering into the conserva- 
tory and taking a glance at the ferns and flowers 
with the help of a cigarette, twice went back to the 
morning room to ask his wife a question of no 
particular importance, then found his way to the 
stables and looked keenly and critically over the 
cattle that were enjoying a life of ease and luxury 
under the eye of servants and capable grooms, and 
finally he disappeared from the immediate neigh- 
bourhood of the house bent upon business about 
which Mrs. Bob never thought of, making close 
enquiries. 


200 


MBS. BOB. 


She and Bob suited one another admirably. On 
mornings when he came down to breakfast in pink, 
he was all alert and business-like, had not a moment 
to lose and could not be “bothered” on any subject 
whatever. His wife was quite accustoned to his 
going gaily away, well turned out in every respect 
and superbly mounted, to turn up again some time 
before dinner, splashed to the eyes and tired out, as 
he always said not fit for human society till he had 
had a warm bath and a quiet half hour on a sofa. 
On other mornings — off days — Bob Markham led a 
desultory kind of life until he drifted off towards any 
kind of business he might happen to have on hand, 
and Mrs. Bob never thought of interfering with 
him. 

Left to herself Mrs. Bob took up the London 
paper and looked it over, leaving the table and 
settling herself comfortably before the fire. Then 
she went off to talk to the cook about the meals for 
the rest of the day — then went up to her dressing- 
room and had a consultation with her maid, who was 
busily occupied in altering a dinner-dress for her to 
wear at Matcham the following week. 

While she was there the coachman sent up for 
orders, and Mrs. Bob said that she would have the 
brougham at three o’clock. So in the ordinary 
avocations of an English woman of good position 
Mrs. Bob’s morning passed quietly and uneventfully 
away, and at one o’clock she sat down alone to a 
tempting little lunch, a bit of fish and a sweetbread, 
with a glass of good claret to wash it down ; and 


DAILY LIFE. 


201 


a few minutes after three o’clock, she might have 
been seen driving in the neat green brougham 
picked out with red, in the direction of Blank- 
hampton. 

44 It is rather early to go back, don’t you think, 
dear ? ” she said to Mrs. Trafford — oh ! yes, they 
were on the most affectionate terms, these two — 
44 and I wanted to make one or two calls. I wish 
you would go with me, I detest going to places 
alone, I always feel such a lost little person, as if 
somebody might sit upon me by mistake.” 

44 Oh ! yes, I will go with pleasure unless it is to 
anyone I don’t know,” Mrs. Trafford replied. 44 We 
had better call for my things later, hadn’t we ? ” 

44 Yes, we can do that easily. I want to go to the 
Deanery and to Rivercliffe. You know the River- 
cliffe people, don’t you ? : ’ 

44 The Leith -Warminsters — oh yes,” Mrs. Trafford 
replied. 44 They are rather nice people, don’t you 
think ? ” 

44 Yes, I thought so — I called there some time 
ago but they were away from 1 home. Then Mrs. 
Leith -Warminster called when we were in Town 
last time, so I never saw her until one day last 
week when I met her at the Palace. I thought her 
a charming woman. Bob says she rides wonderfully 
• well.” 

44 1 wonder what made them come to Blank- 
hampton,” said Mrs. Trafford thoughtfully. 

44 Hunting, so she says,” answered Mrs. Bob. 
" Well then, dear, if you are ready we will go — it is 


1 


202 


MRS. BOB. 


four o’clock now and I want to be back in fair 
time” 

Mrs. Trafford being entirely ready, the two ladies 
went down to the carriage, each stopping for a 
moment before the glass in the hall to make sure 
that her veil was straight and becomingly fixed and 
that she was in proper trim for the important 
function of making calls. 

The admirable Cox was on the watcb and went 
down the steps before them to open the carriage 
door, and then Mrs. Trafford got in with a vague 
little feeling that such a carriage ought to be her 
own and that, if it was, lady and carriage would 
admirably match one another. 

During her recent visit to Little Street Hall, Mrs. 
Trafford had had a somewhat different experience of 
what one may call carriage comfort. The two old 
ladies, who dispensed lavish hospitality at that large 
and rambling mansion, had been and still were 
entertaining an unusually large party at the time 
that Mrs. Trafford’s visit began. It happened that 
four or five guesi^ were departing by a train leaving 
Great Street Station (five miles from Little Street 
Village and Hall) about a quarter of an hour before 
the arrival of the train which was to bring Mrs. 
Trafford and three other visitors with presumably 
two maids, and a pile of luggage. * 

“ It will be best to send the omnibus, Lavinia,” 
said Miss Theodosia Staunton to her ten years’ junior 
sister, who was sixty-two and still very skittish for 
her years. 


f 


DAILY LIFE. 


203 


“ Yes — then there will be no crowding,” answered 
Lavinia, who loved gay apparel and always went 
about herself with several immense dress-baskets. 

So the ’bus was sent off and the several visitors 
were put safely into the train by the careful footman 
who usually did all that kind of work. But by some 
unfortunate mischance, the three visitors who were 
to have come by the same train as Mrs. Trafford did 
not turn up, having missed it by two minutes, so 
Mrs. Trafford, who had no maid, was conducted in 
state to the huge ark, which could I think only have 
found a rival in all this sea-girt kingdom, in one 
coach-house, that of John, Lord Bishop of Blank- 
hampton. 

Mrs. Trafford felt just what she looked, like a 
lonely little mouse sitting wistfully in the corner of 
a huge trap, while on the roof above her one modest 
trunk danced about like a parched pea on a fire- 
shovel. No, Mrs. Trafford did not appreciate the 
grandeur of family arks. She liked the limited 
luxury of a neat little single brougham by Botwood. 

What a very odd thing the study of carriage- 
comfort is ! I begin to doubt whether the posses- 
sion of horses and carriages is after all a very 
desirable end to look forward to. Of course in 
London, except you are a very young man, Shanks’s 
nag will not do very much for you in the way of 
getting you round socially. If you go out much 
and you have not a carriage of your own, you must 
either hire or make cabs suffice for your use. If you 
cannot afford this you must use the train whenever 


204 


MRS. BOB. 


you can and become learned in the matter of ’bus- 
routes. I have tried most ways — and I must say 
that though I do not know a more uncomfortable 
way of going to a party, particularly when you have 
a lady with you, than to turn up the bottom of your 
trousers or to see your wife tuck up her skirts, and 
with her evening shoes wrapped in a bit of paper, 
trudge to the end of the street and scramble into a 
damp and dirty ’bus strewn with straw and reeking 
of people and then (if by great good luck you do not 
have to change ’buses on the way) get out at the other 
end and trudge to the house which is your destination 
and the scene of the evening’s festivity, and there 
penetrate through the little crowd of on-lookers and 
the two or three ve *y superior footmen who are in 
waiting on their twn ^rs within, yet I would rather 
suffer this to the end of my days, aye and much 
more, than I would consent to go about in carriage- 
comfort with a wife who sported the kind of counte- 
nance one often sees behind solemn servants and 
high-stepping horses in the Park or in the principal 
thoroughfares of London-town. 

I wonder why it should so often happen that the 
smartest carriages contain the most forbidding- 
looking ladies, women with severe set faces who 
have an iron air of dignity and seem as if the 
muscles of their mouths could not relax into a 
smile if they wanted to smile ever so badly, 
women who look as if softness and tenderness had 
no place within their breasts,- women whom you 
cannot fancy have ever been shy timid maidens, 


DAILY LIFE. 


205 


sweet blushing brides, happy wives or proud 
mothers. They have plenty of pride in their 
hard, unlovely faces — unlovely and unlovable, 
although they may be and often are handsome 
— but it is not that kind of pride, it is the pride 
of place, the pride of life, not the charming and 
much to be desired pride of a mother’s heart. 

There are beautiful and charming women in 
London by the thousand of course, who look as 
happy as I hope in Heaven’s name they are ; they 
have carriages and fine horses, and many of them are 
well-born and carry high-sounding titles with them 
on their way through life. And you see them about 
here, there and everywhere, it is true. And yet — ■ 
is it not a fact that if you see one pretty happy face 
in a smart carriage, you seem to see half a dozen 
gaunt, scornful, cold, hard, haggard ones immedi- 
ately after ; and have you not, gentle reader, always 
a tendency to think that the pretty happy face 
belongs to someone who, to put it plainly, is no 
better than she should be? What, you think 
not? Oh! you never thought about it! Well, 
then, the very next time you find yourself in 
Piccadilly on a crowded day, just cast your eye 
over the occupants of the various carriages you 
see drawn up in deference to the policeman’s 
uplifted finger and decide for yourself whether I 
am right or wrong. 

Well, in due course Mrs. Trafford and Mrs. Bob 
arrived at the Deanery— it is but a stone’s throw 
from St. Eve’s to the stately pile across the Close 


206 


MRS. BOB. 


Gardens, and they found that dear Lady Margaret 
was not at home. The two ladies therefore handed 
in a sheaf of cards and told the coachman to go to 
Bivercliffe. 

“ I am not altogether sorry,” said Mrs. Bob, as 
they turned out of the Close gatesr — “ when people 
are out it does get you through.” 

“ Yes,” said Mrs. Trafford, with a laugh. 

The lady of Bivercliffe, Mrs. Leith-Warminster, 
was not out and our friends were ushered in 
through a very showy hall into a very showy 
drawing-room. 

The lady of the house was not there but she came 
to them in two minutes, a very tall woman with 
good black eyes, a nondescript sort of face, with a 
rather spare long-waisted figure clad in a light gray 
tailor gown. 

“ I am so charmed to see you,” she said to Mrs. 
Bob — “and Mrs. Trafford too. How good of you 
to come — I am a prisoner in the house — Oh ! a chill, 
I feel shivering and rheumatic and Jack thought I 
had better keep in. Do let me tell them to put 
the horses up for an hour — yes, do, it will be quite 
a charity to me.” 

“We were going to one or two other places,” 
Mrs. Bob answered hesitatingly and looking at Mrs. 
Trafford. 

“ Oh ! just as you like, my dear, so far as I am 
concerned,” said Mrs. Trafford in answer to the 
look. 

Then they may put up for an hour,” Mrs. Bob 


DAILY LIFE. 207 

said with a laugh — u I dare say my coachman won’t 
be sorry.” 

So for an hour they remained, and the ladies 
took their fur wraps off and the three settled down 
in the sumptuous little oriental boudoir which was 
just out of the drawing-room. Not quite alone, no, 
for before they had had half a comfortable chat, as 
Mrs. Leith- Warminster remarked, two officers of the 
43rd came in and presently were followed by another 
man, who was A.D.C. to the General commanding 
the district. 

<c Quite a pleasant little afternoon,” said Mrs. 
Trafford as they drove away from Rivercliffe. “ She 
is a very nice pleasant woman, don’t you think ? ” 

“ Oh ! a charming creature,” said Mrs. Bob. 
“ And he is nice too. They must be rich don’t you 
think ? ” 

“ Oh ! I believe immensely rich. She was a Miss 
Rice, of Manchester — manufacturing people.” 

“ Ah ! yes, I should quite think so,” said Mrs. 
Bob reflectively. 

They called at No. 7 for Mrs. Trafford’s “ things” 
and then went straight off to Brentwood, only 
stopping at the big bookseller’s in the High Street 
for Mrs. Bob to get out and select a couple of novels 
from the circulating library there. But she stopped 
and had a little chat with a man who was buying 
some photographs in the outer shop and professed 
herself very glad to see him. 

<e Come out and dine with us to-night, Major 
Vane,” she said — “ do. Bob will be so pleased to see 


208 


MRS. BOB. 


you, and we have little Mrs. Trafford staying with 
us.” 

“ Why thank you, Mrs. Bob,” said Major Vane, 
who was of a very social temperament and would 
rather at any time dine anywhere than at the mess 
of the 43rd — e< it’s awfully kind of you. I’d like it 
immensely. What time ? ” 

“ Eight o’clock,” she replied. “ Then we shall 
expect you. Good bye, till then.” 

He went out to the door with her and saw her 
into the brougham, staying a moment to speak to 
Mrs. TrafFord ere it drove off*. 

“I asked him to con e out and dine,” said Mrs. 
Bob, as they rolled down the street. “ He’s a nice 
fellow, and four is a more comfortable number than 
three at dinner, don’t you think ? ” 

“ Yes, I think it is,” answered the other. 

It was striking six as they turned in at the gates 
of Brentwood. “ We will have a cup of tea,” said 
Mrs. Bob, “ I saw that you took none at Kivercliffe, 
and I did not drink mine. We have lots of time 
for a real cosy chat before we need think about 
dressing.” 

Mrs. Trafford was quite willing and in a few 
minutes they were comfortably in conclave over a 
good cup of tea and a plate of hot buttered 
muffins. 

“ I have not seen you since you went to stay at 
Little Street,” said Mrs. Bob, as she stirred her tea. 

“ No — what a long time it seems,” answered Mrs. 
Trafford, thinking of her lonesome journey in the 


DAILY LIFE. 


209 


big omnibus, in which she had felt like some un- 
fortunate soul taking a trip in Black Maria for the 
benefit of her health. 

“ Did you have a good time ? Did you enjoy 
your visit ? ” asked Mrs. Bob, helping herself to 
muffins. 

“ Oh ! yes, very well. Not so much as if any of 
my girls had been there.” 

“ No, of course not. Was the house full ? ” 

“ Oh ! very full — over thirty to dinner every 
night,” Mrs Trafford replied. 
tc Then it is a large house ? ” 

“A lovely house,” Mrs. Trafford replied — “ 1 
never saw such black oak anywhere. The oak 
dining-room is perfectly black and shines like 
polished ebony. They have rather old-fashioned 
ways which are very pretty — they dine on the table 
with slip cloths and really I never saw a prettier 
sight than the long black table, all set out with 
pure white flowers, and the most wonderful collection 
of old silver you ever saw.” 

“Ah ! I think the old ways charming,” Mrs. Bob 
exclaimed. “ Of course we are such new people, jt 
would be absurd of us to attempt anything of that 
kind, but my soul always goes to that kind of 
palatial luxury — huge halls, long tables, vaulted 
roofs and .'ill the rest of it. Only, as Bcb says, I 
should be sure to spend all my time in a boudoir 
you couldn’t turn round in, and when I wa* oDliged 
to be in the big rooms I should shiver till nobody 
would come within a yard of me ; and I dare say I 

H 


210 


MRS. BOR. 


should,” she ended, laughing at this woe-begone 
picture of herself. 

She went on talking about Little Street, how- 
ever, hearing all about the two old ladies with much 
interest from Mrs. Trafford — how Miss Theodosia 
was ten years older than Miss Lavinia, how Miss 
Lavinia was sixty-two and dressed herself down to 
thirty-five, how they were Anthony Staunton’s 
aunts and godmothers and had promised to make 
him their heir, besides having made a handsome 
settlement on him at the time of his marriage, how 
their place was managed, what a lavish house they 
kept, how many servants, how many horses, what 
lovely pictures and china they possessed, what ex- 
quisite oak and Chippendale furniture, what silver 
and jewels — <e Rubies, my dear,” said Mrs. Trafford 
— “ rubies enough to make any ordinary woman 
just green with envy. I always feel glad,” she 
went on, “that though they are co-heiresses, the 
rubies belong to Miss Theodosia, because she is such 
a dear sweet little fairy godmother of a woman. 
You know she has left them all to Anthony in her 
will — so my Laura will have the finest rubies and 
sapphires in England.” 

<f Are they so good as that ? What a lucky girl,” 
Mrs. Bob cried — then gave a little sigh. “ Ah ! 
well, I don’t know that there’s much luck about 
ewels. I never got mine back again, you know.” 

“ No — and I am afraid— ” 

“ That I never shall. That is just what I tell 
Bob,” she ended. <c Well, I shall not buy any more, 


DAILY LIFE. 


211 . 


not unless the few I have now are stolen. Bob 
bought me a new ring in Town the other day and 
I wash my hands in it because I’m so afraid of 
losing it.” 

She held out her hand as she spoke and showed 
her guest a beautiful Marquise ring, at which Mrs. 
Trafford uttered quite a scream of delight. 44 Oh ! 
how lovely. Well, I may be wrong and perhaps if I 
had ten thousand pounds given me to buy diamonds 
with, I should be in no hurry to go and spend it. 
But I think I should go straight off and invest every 
farthing of it in jewelry at once.” 

44 Not if you had had your jewels all stolen,” said 
Mrs. Bob wisely — 44 that is the sort of experience 
which helps to develope the bump of caution, my 
dear. At least, I know it has done so in my case.” 

44 Perhaps so. You never heard anything of your 
jewels, I suppose ? ” 

44 Never the smallest trace, nor so far as I have 
heard have any of the others,” Mrs. Bob replied — 
44 and none of us ever will. I think the thieves 
were the cleverest experts in their line and I’m sure 
that the police are awful fools in this cor^ntry, I’m 
sure of it. And, of course, the one accounts in a 
measure for the other. No. I shall never see any 
of them again — I quite gave up all hope of that long 
ago.” 

44 Well, as I have said a good many times,” Mrs. 
Trafford laughed, 44 poverty has its advantages. 
When you have nothing to lose you can’t easily 
lose it, and I go gaily and happily to bed every 

14 * 


212 


MRS. BOB. 


night feeling perfectly sure that no thieves will 
break in and steal, because there is nothing for 
them to get that is worth having. I must say 
though that I was horribly nervous all the time that 
Anthony and Laura were with me last time, because 
Laura had those exquisite sapphires of hers and 
persisted in being quite careless about them. Eeally 
once or twice I was quite cross with her about them 
— indeed I went so far as to say more than once that 
it would serve her right if they were carried off one 
fine day.” 

“ Oh ! my dear, don't say that even in joke,”Mrsu 
Bob cried earnestly. “ You make me shiver when 
you suggest anything so dreadful. And, Mrs. 
Trafford, do you see the time — twenty minutes to 
eight and a man coming to dinner. I shall dine in 
a tea gown.” 

“ And so shall I,” rejoined Mrs. Trafford. 


A BUSINESS-SECRET. 


213 


CHAPTER XIX. 

A BUSINESS-SECRET. 

•* The little that we see 
From doubt is never free ; 

The little that we do 

Is but half-nobly true ; • 

With our laborious hiving 
What men call treasure and the gods call dross, 

Life seems a jest of Fate’s contriving.” 

— Commemoration Odh. 

A year had gone by, the happiest year of Julia 
Howard’s whole life. She and Stephen were still 
utterly and entirely in love with one another and 
were, as many of their friends said, quite a pattern 
to young married people in general and those of 
their own acquaintance in particular. 

It is true that her sister and cousin still seemed 
equally happy, but changes had come to them and 
they had neither of them been able to set up in 
quite the same style as Stephen Howard and his 
wife lived in. And Madge had got another baby, 
another beautiful person, a little girl, with her 
mother’s soft velvet-like eyes and something of 
Lady Ceespring’s seraphic expression of face, a satin- 


214 


MBS. BOB, 


skinned person who seemed to enjoy tucking her 
little pink and dimpled fist into her mouth equally 
as much as she enjoyed long and strong draughts 
from a bottle with an India-rubber arrangement at 
one end and a cork at the top. 

And Laura had got a baby too, also a girl, little 
Theo, a reproduction of her handsome father just 
softeiled by the difference of sex. That baby had 
made a great difference to her father and mother ; 
for the income of a man so very much depends upon 
the standpoint from which you choose to look at it — 
and a handsome allowance, with a certain emphasis 
on th§ adjective, is one thing when you arrange to 
settle it on some one else, presumably your heir, and 
quite another to the heir who looks forward to one 
day enjoying the reversion of your income and estate 
to the tune of just as many thousands as you have 
made your allowance hundreds. Nevertheless Sir 
Anthony and his wife were inordinately proud of the 
little Theo and thought and said that such a wonder- 
ful child had never been born into *the world or, for 
the matter of that, was ever likely to be born into 
the world again. * 

No little voice had come to make a disturbance in 
the pretty flat in Victoria Street nor did there seem 
to be any prospect of such a contingency happening. 
“ Such a pity,” as Mrs. Trafford said one day to Mrs. 
Bob Markham. 

“ Yes, it is and it isn’t,” Mrs. Bob replied. “ In a 
way it’s a great pity— but Stephen and Julia really 
do seem so devoted to one another and almost as if 


A BUSINESS-SECEET. 


215 


they don’t care whether they have children or not, 
and somehow since I lost my baby I feel as if the 
people who don’t have them are better off than those 
who have them and lose them.” 

“Yes, yes,” answered Mrs. Trafford in a 
sympathetic tone — <£ Yes, yes. Well, Julia has never 
mentioned babies to me and I really don’t know 
whether she cares anything about them or not. She 
makes a great fuss over her god-child, little Theo — 
but really she is so wrapped up in Stephen that I 
think she is perfectly happy as she is.” 

By this time other radical changes had come 
about besides the advent of another generation.* At 
last Mrs. Trafford had carried her threats into effect 
and had turned her back upon the good society of 
Blankhampton for the wider and more interesting 
sphere of life in London. Her little joied-a-terre had 
finally resolved itself into a sweet little entresol at 
the other end of Victoria Street to that in which the 
Stephen Howards’ flat stood. Here she had already 
established very much the same kind of salon for 
which she had been renowned in the old city where 
she had had such enormous and satisfactory success 
in the matter of settling her girls comfortably and 
suitably in life. That was a phrase which was very 
often in Mrs. Trafford’s mouth. <e Yes — I have been 
very fortunate in my girls,” she would say — “ for you 
see they have not only settled comfortably but also 
very suitably.” 

Of the old set in Blankhampton there now re- 
mained but very few to descant to the present 


216 


MBS. BOB. 


generation upon the delights of the Society that used 
to be. Mrs. Trafford after securing three really great 
marriages for her girls had betaken herself away just 
when she might have made herself useful to such 
matrons of her acquaintance as had not made them- 
selves victors in like manner. And Lady Main waring 
who had been waiting so long for the chance of a 
house in St. Eve’s and had secured the reversion oi 
No. 7, was actually so lost to her own interests, poor 
lady, as to — to quote the words of the good man who 
cleaned her ladyship’s windows — “take ill and die ” 
just while the seven years’ agreement of the house 
was being prepared for signature, thus leaving her 
nieces Elizabeth and Margaret Damerel with no 
option but to hie them back to their Cumbrian fast- 
ness, where in the seclusion and pride of the county 
families which sparsely sprinkled the country-side 
with good society, they looked back as Eve did to 
Paradise, to the happy days spent in the more mixed 
sets of Blankhampton. 

Then the Antrobuses, who though they have no 
part in this story were once very prominent folk in 
the town — they had all left. For Hugh Antrobus, 
like Lady Mainwaring, died and was gathered to his 
fathers, Polly and To-To were wooed and married 
and a,’ and then Mrs. Antrobus, who wore very deep 
and very wide weepers — What, don’t you know what 
weepers are? Well, they form the only redeeming 
point about widow’s weeds in my humble esti- 
mation — speedily got the Eiver House off her hands, 
and with the hen-leggit gawky girl, who was still 


A BUSINESS-SECRET. 


217 


known as “ Baby,” she hied her away to fresh 
fields and pastures new. 

The Dean’s beautiful daughter, however, still re- 
mained to light the solemn old Parish choir with her 
lovely face, and Lady Margaret had discarded the 
well-known seal-skin coat with the flounce of fur at 
the edge of it, and in its stead had come out in quite 
a regal garment of black plush with what was 
shrewdly suspected of being the original flounce 
divided out — if I do not express myself very clearly 
on matters of feminine garb, you must forgive me. 
Pamela Winstanley had got into the thirties now and 
for three months of the year was still to be seen in 
the Residence pew, her fair little face held higher 
than ever in the air, and with a somewhat more sour 
look upon it than when she had her hour of triumph 
over Mrs. Lovelace with her bold black eyes and her 
insatiable passion for admiration. At the Manor 
Lodge Mrs. Bob now reigned, and a very dainty and 
charming rule her’s was, and the Manor Lodge was 
far and away the most popular house in the whole 
neighbourhood of Blankhampton. 

They called themselves quiet people and so in a 
sense they were, but all the same, when they were 
at home the Manor Lodge was always full and its 
master and mistress entertained in all manner of 
ways. But they were not there all the year round 
and Mrs. Bob had no “day” for her friends and 
acquaintances to make sure of finding her at home. 
They too had discovered the necessity of a pied-a- 
terre in Town, and considered themselves very lucky 


218 


MBS. BOB. 


in having secured a suite of rooms in Queen Eliza- 
beth’s Mansions, to which they could go at any 
moment and be sure of finding everything ready for 
them, without more trouble than that of sending a 
telegram to say that they were coming. 

In London Mrs. Bob became very soon quite as 
popular as she had always been in Blankhampton, 
and being a very intimate friend of Lady Lucifer’s, 
she had the opportunity of knowing very good 
people. 

Mrs. Trafford and Julia Howard also knew if not 
a better set of people than they had known in 
Blankhampton, at least a less mixed one, and really 
the life which Julia led was what Mrs. Trafford de- 
scribed as inordinately gay. “ Oh ! Julia has no 
time for babies,” she said with a laugh to Mrs. Bob 
— “ it is quite as well that she has none.” 

- “ Yes, I think it is,” returned Mrs. Bob who had 
always been of that opinion. 

Well, as I said before, at this time Julia was very 
happy. Stephen was all that the most exacting 
wife could desire, the husband of a year and a half 
was the lover still, and a very charming and delight- 
ful kind of lover too. And yet — why, I wonder is 
there always a yet ? — yet, the little cloud which h&d 
troubled Julia so much at the time of her marriage 
had not vanished, although its character had altered 
a good deal. She was not jealous of Mrs. Bob now 
— oh no, that feeling had died out long ago. She 
had always been fond of her, extremely fond of her, 
and she had come to the conclusion that she was not 


A BUSINESS-SECRET. 


219 


in any sense to be looked upon as a rival. And yet, 
the cloud was still there and from having the shape 
of Mrs. Bob, it had grown and changed in character 
until now it had no palpable form at all, and was 
indeed nothing but a blurred, shapeless presence, 
without outlines, without colour, a mere mist with 
which Julia felt that she was powerless to deal. It 
was all so odd too, so impalpable, that her very feel- 
ings about it were indefinable. One day she would 
be in the depths of despair, feeling plainly though 
without apparent cause, that there was a part of 
Stephen’s life into which she was never able to 
enter, into which he did not intend that she ever 
should enter. Why she should think this, she hardly 
knew — and yet she thought at times that she did 
know. For sometimes- she would watch him sitting 
in an easy chair with his pipe in his mouth buried 
in thought. 66 What are you thinking about 
Stevie ? ” she had asked many a time, asked it with 
her arm slipped coaxingly about his neck and her 
cheek pressed against his. And the answer was 
always the same — a start and a careless, “ Oh ! well 
really, I can’t say. I don’t think I was thinking 
about anything in particular.” 

“ You were not thinking about me — wishing you 
hadn’t married me ? ” she generally cried, and 
Stephen’s answer was always the same. 

“ Wishing I hadn’t married you — my darling ! ” 
in such a tone of unutterable reproach that instantly 
the cloud seemed to melt away as if it was ashamed 
of itself, and Julia’s face and heart grew all sunshine 


220 


MRS. BOB. 


again and she seemed to love Stephen more and 
more as the moments went by. 

Yet when a few hours had gone by that cloud was 
sure to come back again — perhaps because Stephen 
stayed at his club a little longer than usual or be- 
cause he would write a letter or two and put them 
into his pocket, evidently with the intention of post- 
ing them without having shown them to her. 

At last one day she plucked up all her courage, 
and it was by no small effort I can assure you, and 
said boldly to her husband, “ Stevie — what is that 
letter you have been writing ? ” 

“ Merely a business letter, dearest,” he an- 
swered. 

“ Yes, but on what business ? ” she asked, her 
heart beating hard and fast at her hardiness and 
persistence. 

“ Oh ! nothing that would interest you, my dar- 
ling,” he returned carelessly. 

“ But Stevie, it does interest me.” 

There was a sound of tears in her voice, and in- 
deed they were not very far from her eyes — 
Stephen turned to her. “ Why, my dearest,” he 
cried — “ what are you troubling about ? It is only 
a business letter, dear.” 

“ But Stevie,” she cried piteously, “ it is your 
business that I most want to know about. I 
shouldn’t mind about the rest, but you keep all 
your business from me and make me feel as if I was 
a doll, a plaything, a toy, and nothing else. It’s 
not right, Stevie, I am your wife and I have a right 


A BUSINESS-SECRET. 


221 ‘ 

to know all your affairs — I ought to know — I ought 
to have nothing kept back from me. It is my right 
to know.” 

He had started perceptibly at her words urging 
that being his wife she had a right . to know all his 
affairs, and when she at last stopped literally be- 
cause she could not trust herself to go on further, 
he remained silent, looking as if some new difficulty 
had presented itself before him which he did not 
quite know how to deal with. At last, however, he 
spoke. 

“ You are quite right, Sweetheart,” he said slowly 
and unwillingly, “ it is your right to know every- 
thing that concerns me or that I am mixed up with. 
Everything affecting my heart you do know already 
— I &m yours absolutely and always. But about my 
business affairs, well, darling, I tell you everything 
of which I am free to speak to you. It is true that 
there is one matter on which I have been silent, not 
because I wanted to keep it from you, but simply 
because I have taken an oath never to disclose this 
affair to living soul.” 

“ Even your wife ? ” she cried reproachfully. 

“Even my wife,” he said firmly — “though mind 
Juey, if I had been married, or had even seen you 
when I went into this arrangement, I should never 
have tied myself, because I hate to have any know- 
ledge which I cannot share with you. But I had 
never seen you then and although I feel differ- 
ently now, I am bound to repect my word of 
! honour.” 


222 


MRS. BOB. 


“ And it is a business matter ? ” she asked already 
somewhat mollified by the explanation and the un- 
mistakable sincerity of his words. 

“My dear child, it is a business secret, that is 
all,” he answered. “ You know in many businesses 
they have what is called a trade secret — in one it 
may be a particular way of making varnish, in 
another of making a medicine, or a pill or a liqueur. 
This is neither, but it is imperative that it is treated 
as a secret and kept as a secret.” 

“Does Maimie know it?” Julia asked, half 
ashamed of being ready to pin this new suspicion on 
to the old grievance. 

“ Bob knows it, and Bob is bound under exactly 
the same conditions as I am,” Stephen answered — 
“ well, I called it an oath just now, but,” with a 
smile, “ that was rather a strong way of putting it. 
But the fact remains the same, that Bob and I and 
all the others who are mixed up in the undertaking 
have given our word of honour not to divulge a word 
to any living being.” 

Julia did not speak for a few minutes. “ But, 
Stevie,” she said at last in a burst of desperation— 
“ can’t you tell me anything about it ? ” 

The intense yearning in her voice touched him. 
“ My dear little love, how I wish I could matte you 
a partner and tell you everything,” he cried — “ yet 
I cannot. But I can tell you this — it is a property 
that we have amongst us — and it is a gold mine.” 

“ A gold mine — and we shall be enormously rich 
some day ? ” 


A BUSINESS-SECKET. 


223 


“ If our hopes are realized— enormously rich.” 

“ And why is there a secret about it ? ” 

“ Because nobody suspects that the gold is 
there to begin with — if they did everybody 
would be after it and we should have no end of 
trouble.” 

“ And the secret is the whereabouts of the 
mine ? ” 

“ That is just so — and the means of working it.” 

Julia thought it over for a few minutes and then 
she gave a sigh as if she had made up her mind. 
“Well, Stevie darling,” she said, “I’m sorry you 
can’t make me a partner in this wonderful mine, 
but as you can’t why we won’t say any more about 

it, and I won’t worry you any more ” and then 

they kissed one another and Stephen Howard 
thanked Heaven in his heart that he was to have 
peace. 

Only one more question did Julia ask on the 
subject just then — “ Stevie,” she said — “ You said 
that Maimie does not know about this gold mine.” 

“ Well ? ” he asked. 

“ Of course she knows as much as I know — that 
there is such a thing.” 

“ Oh, yes ! ” 

“ And she doesn’t mind ? ” 

“ Doesn’t mind — How ? ” 

“Well, she doesn’t object to Bob having a secret 
from her ? ” 

“ Oh, no — not a bit in the world.” 

“ And she never worries him to know about it ? ” 


224 


MRS. BO B. 


“ No, I am sure she does not.” 

£ ‘ And Maimie is very fond of Bob,” Julia said in 
a musing tone. 

“Maimie is awfully fond of old Bob — always was,” 
Stephen answered promptly. 

“ But if Bob had any other kind of a secret — not 
a business-secret,” Julia began, and then Stephen 
caught her meaning and finished the sentence for 
her. 

“ Why, Maimie would let him hear of it uncom- 
monly soon,” he said with a laugh- — “ and she would 
be quite right too. And I hope, my darling, if ever 
you think that I am keeping a real secret from you 
— not a business-secret, I mean — that you will let 
me hear about it too.” 

“ Yes,” said Julia, and rested her head against him 
with a contented little sigh — “ Yes, I will let you 
know.” 


CHAPTER XX. 

A BUNDLE OF NERVES. 

“ What women would do if they could not cry, nobody knows ! 
What poor defenceless creatures they would be.” 

— Douglas Jerrold. 

Just about this time another great robbery took 
place, and a really awful affair it was. For Little 
Street Hall, the abode of the two Misses Staunton 
was broken into and rifled of almost every moveable 
valuable that it contained. 


A BUNDLE OF NERVES. 


225 


The facts were these ! After the brilliant house- 
party of which Mrs. Trafford had formed one, a year 
previous to the time of which I am speaking, the 
old ladies had not been at Little Street Hall for any 
length of time. For Miss Lavinia, feeling herself 
to be a very personable middle-aged lady still, took 
it into her head that she must have a season in 
Town. 

In vain did Miss Theodosia try to get out of it. 
Miss Lavinia had made up her mind to go, and w T hen 
Miss Lavinia was pleased to make up her mind to 
wander thither did Miss Theodosia, moved by the 
habit of sixty years of giving in to her beauty-sister, 
invariably follow. As I said the older lady tried her 
best to get out of it, urging that at seventy and odd 
years it is desirable to lead a quiet life and that the 
rackettings and junkettings of a London season 
were about calculated to make her shuffle off this 
mortal coil altogether. But it was all in vain ; Miss 
Lavinia had made up her mind, therefore Miss 
Theodosia had little or no choice other than to 
gracefully resign herself to the inevitable, only 
bargaining for a house in Queen’s Grate or failing 
that in the Exhibition Koad or immediately out 
of it. 

“ My dear Lavinia, I would rather be there than 
anywhere — I can breathe there — I cannot breathe in 
Mayfair, so I must beg that you will be kind 
enough to do as I wish. I prefer Queen’s Grate or 
somewhere very near to it where I can have a decent 
sized bedroom and a fairly good staircase. And I 

15 


228 


MRS. BOB. 


wish the horses to have good new well-ventilated 
stables so that they will not feel much, difference 
from their own.” 

Therefore the beginning of April saw the two old 
ladies safely settled in a handsomely furnished house 
in Queen’s Grate, at the end nearest the Park ; and 
from that time until the middle of July they went 
in for a life of dissipation such as was really dreadful 
to think of. They were rich and well-born and 
always beautifully dressed, and Miss Theodosia dis- 
played “ the finest rubies in Europe ” at so many 
dinner-parties that her digestion was quite ruined. 
Oh ! pardon me, gentle reader, what do you pleage 
to say ? That a little while back I described Miss 
Theodosia’s rubies as the finest in England. Scarcely, 
but Mrs. Trafford did so — and that was in Blank- 
hampton. At all times we must make allowances 
for Metropolitan hyperbole. It is always so ! In 
London if a woman is fat, she as a matter of course 
is always called handsome —if she is tall and slender, 
she is called pretty — if she is tall and finely made 
they say she looks beautiful. If she is a somebody, 
and is really too hideous for words, the paragraphists 
make a point either of saying that she is very chic 
or else that her fine face was well set off by such and 
such a bonnet. 

As an instance there is a lady in London now who 
burst upon the world in the character of a very rich 
woman and two seasons ago she was called “ Madame 
Croesus ” by half the society papers in Town. Last 
season she received brevet-rank and was promoted to 


A BUNDLE OF NERVES. 


227 


a Princess Croesus.” But if you will believe me 
before those few months were over she was blazoned 
forth as “ Queen Croesus, 1 — after which, as it seems in 
my poor judgment, there remains nothing for these 
dear people to do now but to call the lady “ The 
Golden Calf” outright. Yes, it will be carrying 
personal journalism a little far — however, as an 
imaginative writer, I offer them the poor suggestion 
for what it is worth. 

Well, it was much the same with Miss Theodosia’s 
beautiful rubies. Sure, they were gems of great 
value, pearls of great price. Miss Theodosia was 
inclined to stoutness, was very fair still, dressed well 
an4 did not hide her neck, and the great wells of 
blood red light became the object of much comment. 
And as they became known they also advanced in 
value, and passed from the perhaps somewhat ex- 
travagant description of the finest rubies in England 
to the most valuable rubies in Europe. And why 
not? When you go in for display — why not as well 
be hanged for a sheep as a lamb ? Doubtless had 
Miss Theodosia gone to London the following season 
her rubies would have been reckoned still higher 
and all the world would have been challenged to 
outshine them. As it was, however, circumstances 
intervened ! And in this way ! To be quite frank 
the celebrated rubies received so many invitations 
to dinner, that by the middle of July their owner’s 
digestion had gone to pieces and the two old ladies 
were peremptorily packed off to a German Bad, to 
be followed by six weeks in the Engadine, a sojourn 

lo* 


228 


MRS. BOB. 


by the Italian lakes and a winter at Monte Carlo 
and the adjacent towns. 

Meanwhile the rabies were locked up for the 
benefit of their health in the strong room of the 
bank where the sisters kept their valuables, and did 
not see the light again until they were sent to be 
cleaned in February, when the sisters returned to 
Little Street to entertain the usual party of that 
month. And the day after they were sent down, 
the rubies went, aye and practically every thing else 
of value in the house went also. 

And then what a weeping and a wailing there 
was ! How Miss Lavinia shivered and shuddered as 
she went up the wide old ghostly stairs and insisted 
upon two of the men servants sleeping in a room on 
the other side of the corridor, and that her maid 
should sleep in her dressing-room ; how she up- 
braided Miss Theodosia for her cruel heartlessness 
in giving all her thoughts to the jewels, when she 
was frightened nearly out of her seven senses — at 
which Miss Theodosia retorted sharply that she 
could not possibly be frightened out of what she 
hadn’t got, a remark which Miss Lavinia took as 
personal and resented accordingly, going indeed so 
far as to suggest intentional insult on her sister’s 
part. 

Nor would Miss Lavinia listen to reason on the 
point — in vain did Miss Theodosia explain that as 
Miss Lavinia was not abnormally constituted in her 
body, she could only have the five senses with 
which weak humanity is ordinarily endowed, in vain 


A BUNDLE OF NERVES. 229 

did she beg her sister to believe that she, Theo- 
dosia, had referred only to the number of senses of 
which she had spoken and not in any way to the 
quality of them — yes, all in vain — Miss Lavinia 
tossed her [head and put her nose high in air and 
made withering remarks at the wall above Miss 
Theodosia’s devoted head, and then she finished her 
protest and clinched the matter by going off into a 
wild fit of violent and protracted hysterics, so violent 
and so protracted that poor Miss Theodosia sent off 
post-haste for the doctor who lived five miles away, 
while Phoebe the under-maid, (who had never quite 
forgiven Miss Lavinia for once stopping a very plea- 
sant trip which was in view for a few weeks’ sojourn 
in Warnecliffe Barracks,) deliberately slid a heavy 
and exceedingly chilly key a-down her mistress’s 
back and took advantage of the gasp with which 
she realised the strange substance to hold a large 
toilet jar of the strongest lump ammonia under 
her nose greatly to the poor victim’s inconvenience 
and distress. But it cured the hysterics, and when 
the doctor in due course arrived, Miss Lavinia was 
well enough to be ordered to bed “ to be kept ex- 
ceedingly quiet ” and Miss Theodosia had time to 
think about the loss of the exquisite gold plate 
which had been their pride for many a day, and to 
mourn plaintively over the loss of her beautiful 
rubies. 

“ The finest rubies in Europe, doctor,” she said 
when she had told the sad story to the cheery man 
of medicine — “ I knew, of course, always that they 


280 


MAS. BOB. 


were very very valuable for Streeter in Bond Street 
told me more than once that he hoped I would give 
him the chance of them if ever I wanted to sell 
them. They were my mother’s, not Staunton jewels, 
and they passed to me and I had them re-set when 
I came of age. I was so proud of my rubies ; and 
Streeter said they were very valuable, but still I 
didn’t know till last Season that they were worth 
quite so much — c The finest rubies in Europe ’ all 
the papers said. I used to wonder that papers had 
never noticed them before, but they never did some- 
how ; you see things are different now-a-days — the 
papers seem to take so much more interest in such 
things than they used to do)” 

“Oh! you’ll get them back again — rubies are 
difficult things to dispose of,” said the doctor 
cheerily. 

“ Never, Doctor,” said Miss Theodosia. “ I shall 
never set eyes on them again — excepting perhaps in 
a different setting when I shouldn’t know them 
again. And I'm the more vexed because I had 
promised to leave them to my nephew Sir Anthony, 
and only the last time they were here I said in a 
joke to her, poor thing, that some day she would be 
able to boast that she had the finest rubies and 
sapphires in England. For the Staunton jewels are 
sapphires — yes, sapphires.” 

“ And I hope her ladyship will be able to wear 
both,” said the doctor gallantly — “ I hope so with 
all my heart, with all my heart.” 

“ Thank-you, Doctor,” replied Miss Theodosia with 


A BUNDLE OF NERVES. 


231 


appropriate tone and gesture, much as she might 
have returned thanks for sympathy expressed for 
her in a heavy bereavement, “ thanks, you are very 
kind, very kind. And my sister, doctor, what do 
you think of her ? ” she asked anxiously. 

The doctor made a comprehensive gesture with his 
out-spread fingers — “ Oh ! — Miss Lavinia is a little 
over- wrought, upset naturally by all this ” 

“ Oh no, it was not this that upset her at all,” 
replied Miss Theodosia, who was afflicted with an 
insatiable desire for absolute truthfulness — “ You 
see they are my rubies that are gone — my sister’s 
diamonds are in Town being re-set — so absurd, as I 
told her, to have diamonds re-set at our time of 
life — and with her the gold plate is really a very 
secondary consideration. But she was very nervous, 
fancied that burglars would get in and — and — well, 
and steal her, I think ; said she would have all the 
men-servants to sleep up in the guest rooms and 
that I was perfectly cold-blooded to be thinking 
about my rubies when she was frightened out of her 
seven senses, and then just because I told her she 
couldn’t possibly be frightened out of what she 
hadn’t got, she took it as a personal matter and 
went into hysterics over it.” 

“ Well, but I dare say Miss Lavinia would not 
have gone into hysterics over the same remark at 
any other time,” said the doctor soothingly. “ And, 
as is generally the case after hysteria, she is now 
very weak and prostrate and must be kept perfectly 
quiet for to-night. I have told Warner that I will 


232 


MRS. BOB. 


send over a composing draught, and in the morning 
I have no doubt that she will be better.” 

And when the morning came Miss Lavinia was 
better, decidedly better, but wore the interesting air 
of an invalid just dashed with martyrdom. She got 
out of her bed late in the afternoon and appeared in 
the drawing-room in a very becoming black moire 
tea-gown with a good deal of rose-coloured silk and 
creamy old lace about it. 

There was quite a crowd of visitors, the news 
having spread round the county and many of their 
friends had driven over to enquire into the truth of 
the rumour and offer their condolences to the sisters 
on their irretrievable loss. It was positively start- 
ling to Miss Theodosia to see the way in which 
matters arranged themselves. She had lost her 
rubies but it was the frail bundle of hysteria and 
nerves in the elaborate black and rose tea-gown who 
complacently received all the pity and the sym- 
pathy, and at that point, that is when the idea 
fairly dawned upon the old lady’s mind, it is safe to 
say that Miss Theodosia would dearly like to have 
shaken her sister. Indeed I believe if circumstances 
had permitted of such a process being put into 
operation, the shaking would have been so sound 
and so thoroughly administered that Miss Lavinia 
Staunton would never have had the nerve to in- 
dulge in a fit of hysterics again as long as ever she 
lived ! What a pity it is that oftentimes politeness 
steps in and puts a stop to measures of the most 
salutary and beneficial description. 


WHAT WARNER HEARD. 


233 


But then in the kind of society in which Miss 
Theodosia and Miss Lavinia Staunton moved, such 
forcible proceedings are not practicable and so Miss 
Lavinia continued in the character of an interesting 
invalid, and by the aid of her tea-gown, her fan, 
her gold-topped smelling bottle with the monogram 
L. S. set in diamonds on the top of it, of carefully 
lowered blinds and rose-shaded lamps, contrived to 
extract for herself all the sympathy which should 
rightly have been bestowed upon the owner and loser 
of “ the finest rubies in Europe.” 


CHAPTER XXI. 

WHAT WARNER HEARD. 

“When a 'woman has the gift of silence, she possesses a quality 
above the vulgar; it is a gift Heaven seldom bestows.” 

— Corneille. 

I think on the whole the two old ladies contrived to 
stir up the neighbourhood round about Little Street- 
Hall very effectually on the subject of their mis- 
fortune ; in fact they made much more real fuss 
than any of the people in the Blankhampton neigh- 
bourhood who had been relieved of their property 
in a like manner had done. 

Their nephew, Sir Anthony, had already enjoyed 
and terminated his long leave but on the strength 
of the finest rubies in Europe he contrived to get 
an extra fortnight’s leave and promptly came along 


234 


MRS. BOB. 


to Little Street, accompanied by Laura and tbe 
blessed baby, to give bis aunts the benefit of his 
advice and to help to support them in their mis- 
fortune. 

Then the other and previously expected guests 
began to arrive, and gradually the house filled, and 
also by hook or by crook they had to put up quite a 
staff of keen -faced gentlemen hailing fron Scotland 
Yard, or wherever the Criminal investigation people 
happen to have their headquarters. 

Bat at the same time they found out nothing, 
absolutely nothing ; there was no trace whatever, 
not a footmark, not a tool, not a sign of any kind 
except that the plate and jewels were gone. 

And gradually the excitement subsided a little 
and the house-party at Little Street began to enjoy 
life somewhat, and at the end of ten days, Sir 
Anthony — finding that his presence was actually of 
no use whatever to his aunts and that the cleverest 
detectives in England were at their wits’ end for a 
clue, and guessing from one or two gentle little 
hints which were dropped by Miss Theodosia that 
guests were already invited to fill the rooms at 
present in the occupation of himself, his wife and 
the blessed baby — told his aunts that he was awfully 
sorry he hadn’t been able to be of more use to them, 
but really the affair seemed to be beyond all com- 
prehension, and as his leave was nearly up, he and 
the wife would be off in the morning as they wanted 
to stop a couple of days with Julia Howard on their 
way home. 


WHAT WARNER HEARD. 


235 


Miss Theodosia gave quite a sigh of relief. “Of 
course, my dear boy,” she said, “lam always sorry 
when you have to leave us ; but the fact is, this 
time I shall really be quite relieved. You see you 
told me positively that you could not possibly get 
even a single day’s leave during February ” 

“ Couldn’t have done under ordinary circum- 
stances,” Sir Anthony put in. 

“ No, no, exactly. But the fact is I have asked 
as many people as the house would hold and ” 

“ You will be more glad of our room than our 
company,” cried Sir Anthony with a laugh. 

“ Oh ! no, not that,” exclaimed Miss Theodosia in 
a tone of horror. 

“ Well, pretty much that,” Sir Anthony laughed. 
" But never mind, Aunt Theodosia, we’re not the 
least offended. I only wish I could have made my- 
self more useful over this business.” 

So they went up to London and Julia ' met them 
at the station with her neat brougham and carried 
Laura off* to Victoria Street, leaving Sir Anthony to 
put the nurse and the blessed baby and all the 
luggage in and on to a four-wheeled cab and himself 
get into a hansom and drive down to his club for 
an hour or so before dinner. 

The sisters naturally enough talked about little 
or nothing but the robbery at Little Street. 

“ My dear,” said Julia fearfully, when they were 
comfortably settled before the fire in the little 
boudoir — “ I assure you I bless the kind Providence 
every day which permits me to live in a flat — No, it 


236 


MRS. BOB. 


it is not easy to rob a flat excepting it is on a 
ground floor.” 

“Well, I shouldn’t mind having your flat in any 
case,” cried Laura, looking round the elegant little 
room. 

Julia looked round too and then caught the 
glance of her husband’s eyes. “.No,” she said 
turning back to her sister, after smiling at Stephen 
— “ I daresay not. It is pretty, isn’t it ? By the 
by, Little Street is a fine place, is it not ? ” 

" Oh ! a lovely place,” Laura replied. “ But 
really all the same, I do not wonder that they got 
the burglars in. The display they make is really 
ridiculous, and all to please that silly Miss Lavinia, 
who really does make the most awful fool of herself 
you can possibly imagine.” 

“ Well, if she was anything like what she was in 
Town last season, I can imagine it very well,” said 
Julia with a laugh — “ she was silly enough then.” 

“My dear,” said Laura impressively, “she was 
rational compared with what she is now, I assure 
you that the w T hole of the time we were there — ten 
days — she was doing the invalid, talked about her 
shattered nerves and screamed every time a cinder 
fell out of the fire. And the beauty of it all is that 
her jewels are safe in Bond Street and her sister has 
lost everything she has.” 

“ I can quite believe it,” said Julia — “ I always 
thought her the silliest woman I ever knew, but 
I’ve noticed that she generally contrived to get the 
easiest chair and the biggest peach, and the most 


WHAT WARNER HEARD. 


237 


comfortable seat in a carriage for herself, so that 
really, I think her silliness is all put on more or 
less.” 

<e Of course it is. But it puzzles me 'to know why 
she should make such a fuss about this affair. If 
ever Miss Theodosia mentioned the robbery, she 
would shudder and shut her eyes and begin to faint 
— 4 Pray, spare me, Theodosia/ she would say and 
poor old Miss Theodosia, who was aching to talk 
about the finest rubies in Europe and burning to 
discuss every little detail concerning them, always 
had to bottle her words up and turn the conversation 
to ward off the threatened fit of hysterics I told 
Miss Theodosia once that if I were her I should just 
let her go off into hysterics and stop in them as long 
as ever she liked.” 

“ And what did Miss Theodosia say ? ” asked 
Stephen in great amusement. 

44 fi Oh ! my dear/ she said,” Laura answered, 
“‘don’t let Lavinia hear you say that. She is 
quite capable of leaving the whole of her fortune to 
that detestable Emily Spenderley’s hateful boy — 
and if I ever thought that horrid boy would be 
master of this house, I am sure I could not rest in 
my grave — I believe I should come back and haunt 
the place.* It’s a beautiful old place,” Laura went 
on — 44 and the gold plate was a dream. I daresay 
it was all melted down within a few hours of its 
disappearance.” 

“ Oh ! I should think so,” Julia agreed — then 
after a moment’s pause she said reflectively — 44 Dear 


238 


MRS. BOB. 


me, what a lot of people we know who have lost 
their plate and jewels in the same way. I wonder 
if it’s the same gang who did all the others.” 

“Very improbable,” put in Stephen carelessly. 

“ Yes, I suppose so,” answered Laura. “ But, do 
you know, it puzzles me and worries me to guess 
why Miss Lavinia always wanted to drop the subject 
— and she did.” 

“ Oh ! no, you must have fancied it.” 

“ No, I didn’t, for I told Anthony and he thinks 
the same thing. I can’t make it out now” Laura 
continued in a determined tone, “ but I shall never 
rest till I have made it out. Oh ! you may laugh as 
much as you like,” she added to Stephen, “ but all 
the same I mean what I say.” 

Stephen Howard went off into a fit of laughter. 

“Well,” he said at last when he could command 
himself sufficiently to speak — “ I sometimes think 
Juey goes in for propounding the funniest ideas in 
all the world ; but in her wildest flights of imagina- 
tion she has never equalled your suggestion. 
Surely, you don’t mean to say that the old lady is 
mixed up with the robbery in any way, or that she 
has actually stolen the things herself?” 

“No, I don’t,” answered Laura stoutly — “but I 
do think this, that Miss Lavinia is a thoroughly 
sharp and clever old lady who chooses to wear a 
mask of utter silliness which she calls nerves just 
to make herself look interesting and coquettish ; 
and I think she knows more about this particular 
affair than she cares to tell.” 


WHAT WARNER HEARD. 


239 

“But "how could she know anything about it if 
she was not implicated in the matter herself?” 
Stephen exclaimed. 

“ Very easily,” said Laura quickly — “ for instance, 
tne robbery took place that particular evening about 
ten o’clock, or rather about ten o’clock the night 
after they got back to Little Street the robbery was 
discovered by Warner, who is upper lady’s maid to 
the two old ladies. Mijpif iavinia had gone up to 
her room for someth in g&m mediately after dinner, 
that is about a quarter past nine. She stayed 
upstairs abouir tw&nty minutes, went quietly into 
the little drawingroom and sat down in a chair 
without speaking N*nd in fact covered her eyes with 
her hand, a most unusual thing with her. About ten 
o’clock, or a few minutes past, Warner went up from 
the upper servants’ supper which begins at nine punc- 
tually and, finding that someone had been in the room 
and that the jewel-case was gone, she uttered an 
awful scream and ran down to the drawing-room. 

“ 4 Dear me, Warner,’ said Miss Theodosia who 
was quietly reading a book — f What is the matter 
that you come rushing in in this manner ? Have 
yon taken leave of your senses ? ’ 

44 4 Oh ! * Ma’am, Miss Staunton,* cried Warner, 
sobbing with fright — 4 there have been thieves and 
robbers in the house and your rubies — they’re gone, 
Ma’am, gone.’ 

44 4 Oh ! my Grod ! * cried Miss Lavinia in a sharp 
voice and then with a great groan sank back fainting 
into her chaiiv” 


240 


MRS. BOB. 


“ Well, it seems to me,” remarked Stephen, when 
his sister-in-law had got to this stage — “ that all 
this was natural enough and, in fact, was precisely 
what almost any woman would have done under 
similar circumstances.” 

“ Yes — yes,” answered Laura — c< but hear the rest. 
She was in a genuine faint for a quarter of an hour 
or twenty minutes. Oh yes, she can do a sham one 
as cleverly as anyone I knbfr, I’v^seen her many a 
time, particularly since the robbery took ptace — and 
Miss Theodosia in her fright and anxiety went up to 
her room to fetch some specif medicine which she 
had put away for use on such occasions. Whilst she 
was gone, Miss Lavinia opened her eyes a little and 
her lips moved. Warner bent over her and heard 
her say — 4 Oh ! Frank, Frank, that you should have 
come to this — Oh ! my God, it will break my heart,* 
and then she slipped off into another swoon and 
when Miss Theodosia came back with the restorative 
she came to and straightway went off into violent 
hysterics. After that she has always steadily refused 
to listen to any discussion of the affair, upbraids her 
sister for any conversation which arises about it, says 
she has no heart and thinks more of her rubies than 
of her only sister and has generally made herself 
very disagreeable about it ever since.” 

“ Well ? ” said Julia eagerly. 

“ Well, I know what I think about it,” said Lady 
Staunton significantly. 

“ And what do you think ? ” cried Julia and 
Stephen in the same breath. 


WHAT WARNER HEARD. 


241 


“ I think that she went up accidentally to her 
room and surprised the thief at his work — and I 
think that she recognized him.” 

“ Then why didn’t Staunton ask her about it ? ” 

“ Anthony did broach the subject, but the result 
was such a much worse fit of hysterics than she had 
ever indulged in before that Anthony was glad to 
have done with the subject and Miss Theodosia 
begged him for Heaven’s sake never to mention the 
robbery to her sister again. And of course you 
know ” — Lady Staunton went on — <e Anthony has 
to be very careful what he says to her, for they 
have six thousand a year each and if he offends 
her she will think nothing of, as Aunt Theodosia 
often says, — ‘leaving the whole of it to that 
detestable Emily Spenderley’s hateful boy.’ And 
of course Anthony does not exactly wish that to 
happen, so that he cannot follow up this robbery 
as he would like to do. But at the same time we 
think that Miss Lavinia knows a good deal more 
than she pretends to do and that if she ehose to 
speak, she could give the clue which the police 
want.” 

“ It seems incredible,” Julia cried. 

66 Not at all,” said Stephen — “ 1 think Laura has 
just hit the right nail on the head. But how do 
you know the police have not got hold of this clue 
also ? ” 

“ Because Warner has told nobody but Anthony 
and me. And Warner will not say a word — Miss 
Lavinia gave her ten pounds the other day, because 

16 


242 


MES. BOB. 


her nervousness had given her so much extra trouble 
— and Warner has been about thirty years with 
them, and she and Miss Lavinia understand one 
another thoroughly.” 

“ And because of some sickly sentimentality on a 
foolish old woman’s part, you will lose your chance 
of ever wearing the c finest rubies in Europe,’ ” cried 
Mrs. Stephen in unutterable disgust. 

“ That is pretty much how the case lies,” returned 
Lady Staunton. “And we can do very little to 
help ourselves although both Anthony and I are 
agreed that if we could make her speak we could 
put our finger on the thief at once. As it is, how- 
ever, Anthony does not think the rubies and gold 
plate worth risking six thousand a year for. Miss 
Theodosia quails before the dreadful hysterics and 
the bitter reproaches which her sister hurls at her on 
the smallest provocation, while Warner, who knows 
the value of a good and lucrative place, does not see 
what she would gain by opening her mouth so she 
very wisely keeps it shut. And I must say 1 
think that I should do the same if I were in 
her place.” 

“And I dare say I should too” said Julia, 
but all the same she gave a sigh to the memory of 
the exquisite jewels of which she had more than 
once already envied her sister the probable posses- 
sion. “Well, Laurie,” she added, after a moment, 
“ I am awfully sorry for your disappointment, dear, 
for it must be a disappointment to see such jewels 
as those slip out of your grasp. And I do hope that 


FRANK! 


243 


you will take care to have your sapphires in safe 
keeping.” 

“ Yes,” Laura answered — “ I will take care of them 
I promise you.” 


CHAPTER XXIII. 
frank! 

“There is nothing makes a man suspect much, more than to 
know little; therefore remedy suspicion by procuring to know 
more ; and keep not your suspicions to smother.” — Bacon. 

Everybody said afterwards that the great robbery at 
Little Street Hall was the means of killing Miss 
Lavinia Staunton. From that exciting and event- 
ful evening it is certain that the old lady never 
looked up again. She remained in a state of tea- 
gowns and nerves, refused to go out, insisted upon a 
couple of the men-servants sleeping in the next 
room to hers, had her bedroom windows barred till 
they looked like a prison or a madhouse, and gra- 
dually slipped into the position of a great invalid. 
In her presence all mention of the robbery became 
a strictly tabooed subject; and at last, just before 
Easter, Miss Lavinia by some means or other caught 
a severe chill and, after four or five days of severe 
illness, she died and the secret of the jewel-robbery 
was safe for ever. 

Miss Theodosia felt the loss terribly, and by the 
-advice of the doctors as soon as the funeral was 
over, she left the Hall and went to the South Coast 
for a thorough change. With her also went the 

16 * 


244 


MRS. ROB. 


faithful Warner and a young person of more fri- 
volous mind who had replaced Phcebe. 

The place they chose was in the Isle of Wight. 
They were lucky enough to find a large well-fur- 
nished house standing in its own grounds. Miss 
Theodosia’s own carriage and horses w^ere sent over, 
her own cook went to cook for her, her own butler 
and footman to wait upon her, and yet, when the 
old lady got there, she felt more dull and lonely and 
miserable than she had done at home. 

“ I am so lost without my sister, doctor,” she said 
to the local medical man, whom Warner called in in 
a fright one day — “ we had really never been parted, 
and although she was ten years younger than me 
and thought herself young enough to be my 
daughter, we were always together and the closest 
of companions. And without her I feel as if I had 
lost myself — and so I have, my other self,” and 
then poor Miss Theodosia began to cry weakly and 
Warner put in her word. 

“ My ladies always lived a very gay life, Sir,” she 
said with a modest cough. “ Miss Lavinia — for 
whom Miss Staunton is wearing mourning now. 
Sir — was very fond of gaiety and going out. And I 
feel sure Miss Staunton misses the visitors more 
than anything. I have been in their service thirty 
years, and I never knew them be a week without 
visitors during all that time. And now my poor 
mistress is all alone in a strange house and she feels 
it dreadfully.” 

“But, my dear lady,” said the doctor, “why 


FEANKI 


245 


don’t you have a few people to stay with you and 
cheer you up a little ? ” 

u It is such \ short time since my loss,” answered 
Miss Theodosia, drying her eyes. 

“Well, every day will mend that,” the doctor 
said cheerily. “ {Supposing you only ask one or two 
just at first.” 

“ I don’t know anyone who would care to come,” 
sighed Miss Theodosia wretchedly. 

“Oh, Ma’am,” cried Warner, “I am sure Mrs. 
Trafford would be only too glad to come and pay 
you a visit — my Lady’s mother, Sir,” she explained 
to the doctor. “ You know Ma’am, you said Mrs. 
Trafford wrote you the sweetest letter of anybody 
when poor Miss Lavinia went, and she sent a lovely 
wreath with affectionate remembrances on it.” 

“Yes, Warner, so she did,” said Miss Theodosia 
with another sigh. “ Yes, she was very tender and 
kind. I think I might without impropriety ask her 
to come and spend a few weeks with me. It will 
be dull for her, but there are lovely drives and I 
have the carriage and horses here.” 

“ I dare say she will enjoy it immensely,” said the 
doctor. “ Is she a cheerful lady ? ” 

“ Oh, most cheerful,” cried Miss Theodosia in 
quite a sprightly tone, so much did the prospect 
cheer her of having somebody beside Warner to 
talk to. 

So that very afternoon poor Miss Theodosia sat 
down and wrote a long letter to Mrs. Trafford, 
giving her a detailed account of her new abode, of 


246 


MRS. BOB. 


her great loneliness and of how the doctor had re- 
commended cheerful society as her best medicine. 
“And,” she ended, “now I am going to ask you, 
dear Mrs. Trafford, to do me a great favour and 
come and spend a few weeks with me in this lovely 
island. I know it is a great favour to ask you to 
leave London just at this time and shut yourself up 
in a house of mourning but, indeed, I shall be so 
grateful to you and I shall do everything that is 
consistent with respect for my sister’s memory to 
make your visit as little dull as possible. I have 
the principal servants and the carriage and horses 
here so that you will be comfortable enough,” and 
then there followed some further explanatory matter 
and the letter ended “ Yours affectionately, Theo- 
dosia Staunton.” 

Now as a matter of fact Mrs. Trafford had, up to 
the time of receiving that letter, had no intention 
whatever of leaving London until the end of July. 
But as soon as she got Miss Theodosia’s letter — 
which was at breakfast time — she put on her bonnet 
and went down the street to see Julia. 

“ Rather a nuisance for you,” was Julia’s remark, 
when she had read the letter. 

“ Yes, that is so — but for Laura’s sake I think I 
ought to go,” Mrs. Trafford replied. 

“Yes —it is no slight thing for Laura to have 
twelve thousand a year hanging in the balance,” 
Julia said gravely. 

“ Oh ! I must go,” Mrs. Trafford said decidedly, 
“I really have next to no choice in the matter. 


FRANK 


247 


Well, I think I shall let my flat, it is just the best 
time of the year for that. If I come back before 
it is free again I can go to an hotel.” 

“ Or you can come to us,” said Julia promptly. 

Now if she was anything, Mrs. Trafford was a 
woman of action, and she did not then let the grass 
grow under her feet. She called a cab and trotted 
off to a house-agent, and within a couple of days 
she had let her sweet little flat for the rest of the 
season at a rental of nine guineas a week, which, 
all things considered, was not bad business ! Mrs. 
Triifford did not often do bad business ! Then she 
packed up her things and set her house in order and 
finally found herself in the train on the way to the 
Isle of Wight. 

Miss Theodosia’s first words to her were of heart- 
felt gratitude for her unselfishness in giving up the 
best part of a London season to come to a house ot 
mourning where she could not in the ordinary run 
of events possibly have gaiety of any kind. Mrs. 
Trafford was very gentle and tender with the old 
lady and lightly put aside the question of her un- 
selfishness, her mind flying straight to the thought 
that she was realiy doing this for Laura and to 
ensure her the twelve thousand a year which the 
old lady had to leave, while poor grateful Miss 
Theodosia never gave them a thought at all and 
innocently and really believed in the unadulterated 
goodness of Mrs. Trafford’s heart. 

And in truth Mrs. Trafford found it dreadfully 
dull at Boscombe, as the pretty house was called 


248 


MRS. BOB. 


There is a certain satisfaction in some minds, 
usually feminine in gender, when they are trying 
something new, living in a new house, starting a 
new custom, doing in fact anything out of the com- 
mon, or what to them is out of the common. In 
their minds there is such a delightful sense of new- 
ness that is almost invariably accompanied by the air 
which a child has when it is playing at keeping 
house, or playing at being grown up. Now just at 
first when Mrs. Trafford took up her abode at Bos- 
combe, she went with a little jaunty air, she ex- 
plored both the house itself and the pretty grounds 
which surrounded it, then went further a-field and 
from Miss Theodosia’s roomy and comfortable 
victoria, she viewed all the scenery of the beautiful 
little island in which she found herself. But this 
sort of exhilaration does not last for ever, and by 
the end of about a month Mrs. Trafford began to 
feel very unmistakably bored. 

Miss Theodosia was not exactly conscious of 
this, but she had from the first felt that, it was a 
very great kindness of Mrs. Trafford to come during 
the pleasantest time of the year to a house of 
mourning, and as the weeks crept slowly over she 
felt that her visitor must be pining for another face 
beside her sad one. As a matter of fact Miss 
Theodosia had not a particularly sad face at this 
time ; she thought that she had, she truly and con- 
scientiously believed that the depth of her grief 
for Lavinia equalled the depth of the crape flounces 
on her gown, but in reality such was not the case. 


FRANK ! 


249 


During the whole of her life Miss Lavinia had been 
more or less of a trial to her sensible elder sister, of 
late she had been the cause of considerable anxiety 
also, for there was very little silliness of which 
Miss Lavinia was not capable and she had had in 
later years but very little care for the dignity of 
her old name and none at all for the dignity of 

her old self. So on the whole the relief to Miss 

Theodosia’s really well-organized mind was a great 
deal more than she was herself aware of as yet. 
Still it must be acknowledged that Mrs. Trafford, 
who was a little woman of an extremely sociable 

nature, did pine for the sight of a fresh face or 

two, so that when she had been at Boscombe close 
upon a month, and Miss Theodosia suggested for 
about the twentieth time that she felt sure she 
was dreadfully bored and that really they might 
ask somebody else now, she accepted the new idea 
with alacrity. 

“You must be getting tired of me, dear Miss 
Theodosia,” she said sweetly. “Supposing that you 
ask some other friend down and I will make way 
for her.” 

“ Oh ! I did not mean that at all,” cried Miss 
Theodosia looking at Mrs. Trafford with wide open 
eyes of alarm. “You don’t want to desert me 
— oh! pray don’t dear. You just suit me and 
you are so kind and bright and sympathetic — 
pray don’t talk of leaving me to my loneliness — 
don’t!” 

“ Oh ! my dear, I shouldn’t think of leaving 


250 


MRS. BOB. 


while it is any comfort to you to have me stay,” 
exclaimed Mrs. Trafford, visions of that twelve 
thousand a year floating before her mind. “ But 
I did not want you to be getting weary of seeing 
me here. You meant then to ask some one else 
whilst I am still here ? ” 

“ Yes, precisely so,” replied Miss Theodosia 
meekly. “You see, dear, this is just the best 
month of the year for the island, and I don’t think 
there would be any impropriety in my having a 
few visitors now. I thought we might ask Mr. 
and Mrs. Stephen down. Do you think they would 
come ? ” 

“ I should think they would be delighted,” 
answered Mrs. Trafford promptly, though as a 
matter of fact she was by no means sure that 
either Stephen or his wife would care to leave 
London just then. “ But at all events it will be 
very kind if you ask them, though of course, I 
cannot answer for their being able to come.” 

Later in the day therefore a pretty note of in- 
vitation was sent off to, Mrs. Stephen Howard, and 
by the same post went an urgent letter from Mrs. 
Trafford begging her if possible, for her sister’s sake, 
to accept it. 

“I know it will be most inconvenient for you 
to come here, dear, just now,” she wrote, “but if 
it is possible to do so, I beg you to come. The 
island is looking lovely, the house is most com- 
fortable and the carriage and horses are always at 
my disposal. Miss Theodosia is very anxious that 


FRANK 


251 


you should come, so for dear LauvcCs sake I tvust 
you will be able to come.” 

Thus urged, Julia wrote back that they would 
come on the day after to-morrow for ten days, that 
they could not possibly stay longer than that 
because they had accepted an invitation to dine at 
the house of a cabinet minister whom they only 
knew slightly and could not, without probably 
giving great offence, get out of it. 

“ There is something for nearly every day 
between this and then,” said Julia in conclusion, 
“but only four or five formal dinners which I think 
I can easily get out of by explaining the circum- 
stances.” 

On the day appointed therefore they went down 
and reached Boscombe in time for dinner. Every- 
thing went well. Miss Theodosia cried a little 
when she received Julia and embraced her tenderly 
and repeated her little speech about the house of 
mourning and her kindness in coming to it. 

“ Oh ! no,” cried Julia, “ it is no great kindness 
on our part, dear Miss Theodosia, unless it is kind- 
ness to ourselves. We were delighted to come, 
weren’t we Stevie ! ” 

“ That we certainly were,” said Stephen, thus 
directly appealed to for an opinion. 

“It is most kind of you to say so, my dear — 
kinder still to feel so towards a lonely old woman 
who has very few attractions to offer you,” said Miss 
Theodosia in a shaking voice. 

But after this, the old lady did not talk much 


252 


MRS. BOB, 


about her loss and Julia quite gathered that Miss 
Theodosia had already got the worst of her grief 
over. The dinner that evening was quite bright 
and decorously jovial, and the next morning their 
hostess met them at breakfast time with a really 
cheerful — “ Well, my dears, it is a lovely day and 
I want to make the best of it and take you for a 
long drive. What time will you be able to 
start ? ” 

** Oh ! whenever you like,” answered Julia readily. 
“ I can be ready in ten minutes if necessary.” 

“ Then shall we say half-past ten ? ” asked the 
old lady, to which they all agreed and when half- 
past ten came the carriage was already standing at 
the door. They were all ready too and soon took 
their places, Julia sitting next to her husband with 
her back to the horses in spite of Miss Theodosia’s 
protestations that she did not mind that place in 
the least and, in fact, had all her life been used to 
giving up the best seat to Lavinia who was more 
delicately organized than herself and never could 
bear the motion of riding backward. 

“ Miss Theodosia,*’ said Julia firmly, “ I am not 
going to move — and I want to sit next to Stephen 
and then if he does not behave well I can administer 
a sharp pinch without anybody being the wiser.” 

So, with a laugh, they settled themselves and 
started for their drive. And a very lovely drive 
they had — “worth leaving London for” as Julia 
said in her delight, to the great satisfaction of the 
old lady whose conscience had given her many 


FEANKi 


253 


qualms for some days past. And then just as they 
were returning home, Miss Theodosia uttered an 
exclamation of surprise and called out — “ James — 
stop ! ” Julia turned her head to see the cause of 
the pleasure on Miss Theodosia’s face and saw a 
tall well-built soldierly man with close-cut white hair 
and a well-waxed white moustache, just in the act 
of lifting his hat to her. 

<c My dear Frank ! ” exclaimed Miss Theodosia, 
leaning over the side of the carriage and holding 
out her hand. “ My dear Frank, how very glad I 
am to see you. When did you come ? Where are 
you staying ? And how long are you going to 
stop ? ” 

The gentleman had by this time put his hat on 
his head and had reached the side of the carriage. 
“ My dear Miss Staunton,” he said, “ I had no idea 
you were in the Isle of Wight. I — I — ” and then 
he broke off short, as if he did not quite know how 
to go on. 

Miss Theodosia however understood apparently. 
“ Ah, Frank ! ” she said, shaking her head mourn- 
fully, i( I have had a terrible loss since I saw you 
last. But you will come and see me, won’t you ? 
I am living for a time at a house called 6 Boscombe,’ 
just along the road there. You will come and dine 
won’t you ? ” 

“ I shall be charmed,” he answered, but all the 
same he spoke in a conventional tone, such as made 
Mrs. Trafford open her eyes a little. 

Miss Theodosia evidently noticed nothing. w To- 


254 


MRS. BOB. 


night,” she said, “ will that suit you ? Yes, at 
eight o’clock then,” and then she shook hands with 
him again and made a sign to the servants that they 
should drive on. 

“ Such a dear fellow,” she said wiping a tear or 
two away from her cheeks. “ I have known him for 
forty years. Indeed ever since he was quite a boy. 
Of course, I was always much older for he was two 
years younger than Lavinia, but I always thought 
they would have made a match of it, for they were 
devoted to one another for years.” 

“ What is his name ? ” asked Mrs. Trafford. 

“ Adeane— Colonel Adeane. But we,” with a 
sigh, “ have always called him ‘ Frank ! 5 ” 

At this point an awful thought came into 
Julia Howard’s mind, an awful recollection of what 
her sister had told her of certain circumstances 
connected with Miss Lavinia Staunton’s death. 
How Warner had bent down to hear her mistress’s 
murmured words when she had partially recovered 
from the •fainting fit with which she had received 
the news of the robbery. “ Oh ! Frank, Frank, to 
think that you should have come to this. Oh ! my 
God, I think it will break my heart.” 

During the few minutes which elapsed between 
parting with Colonel Adeane and their reaching the 
house, Julia sat buried in thought, turning the new 
idea over and over in her mind, until she felt as if 
she could more easily take a leaf out of poor dead 
and gone Miss Lavinia’s book, and relieve her mind 
by going off into violent hysterics than she could 


THE TRUTH AT LAST. 


255 


take off her hat and, in her state of burning 
curiosity, go through the long and formal luncheon 
which was then awaiting them in the dining- 
room. 


CHAPTER XXIV. 

THE TRUTH AT LAST. 

•• Talk not of others’ lives, or have a care 

Of whom you talk, to whom, and what, and where; 

For you don’t only wound the man you blame, 

But all mankind, who will expect the same. ” 

— Horace. 

As soon as luncheon was over, however, Julia rose 
and said she was going to her room, that she wanted 
to write a letter if Miss Theodosia did not happen 
to want her. The old lady said that she did not, 
and begged her to do exactly as she liked. “ You 
have not come to Boscombe to be my slave, my 
dear,” she said kindly. 

“ You are very kind,” said Julia — then looked at 
Stephen. “ Stevie,” she said, “ I wish you would 
come up for a few minutes. I want to ask you 
about something.” 

So together they went upstairs, and as soon as the 
door was shut Julia seized his hand eagerly. “ Oh, 
Stevie,” she exclaimed, “ such a thought has come 
into my mind.” 

“ Yes — and about what, my bird ? ” he asked, 
sitting down in the big easy chair by the bow window 
and looking up at her with interest. 


256 


MRS. BOR. 


“ About the Little Street Hall robbery.” 

“ Really, and what of it ? ” still in an awaiting 
tone. 

44 Stevie,” said Julia, impressively, and dropping 
down on her knees before him. 44 Stevie, that was 
the man who did it ! ” 

He gave such a start at her words that he nearly 
threw her backwards. 44 Oh, my dear, you made me 
jump nearly out of my skin,” he said, drawing her 
towards him. 44 What man do you mean, dear ? ’” 

44 That Colonel Adeane. Depend upon it he is the 
man ! Miss Theodosia called him 4 Frank,’ said they 
had always called him Frank and that he and Miss 
Lavinia had been in love with each other for years. 
So you can understand how she would call out to 
him when she discovered him in her bed-room, 4 Oh ! 
Frank, Frank, to think you should have come to 
this ! Oh ! my God. I think it will break my 
heart.’ Did you not see how confused he was at the 
sight of Miss Theodosia^ and how coldly and con- 
ventionally he received her invitation to dinner. 1 
did, and I am sure he was the man who did it, 
perfectly sure. What do you think about it, 
Stephen ? Tell me.” 

44 Well,” he said at last, 44 if you want to know 
exactly what I think, Juey — I think you are going 
out of you mind. You must be mad to suggest 
such a thing.” 

She took as a jpke what he was meaning in sober 
earnest. 44 Yes, I know,” she answered rather in- 
consequently, 44 but Stevie, did you look at the 


THE TRUTH AT LAST. 


257 


man ? Why, he had guilt and confusion stamped upon 
him. He was so confused he scarcely knew how to 
speak to Miss Theodosia. Really, I think she ought 
to be told about it, because if it is true that Miss 
Lavinia wished to shield him because of what had 
gone before, she is not here now to be vexed about 
it and it does seem a shame that those jewels, those 
lovely rubies, should be spirited away and any effort 
spared which might possibly restore them. I really 
think I ought to tell Miss Theodosia what I 
suspect.” 

“ And I,” said Stephen, in an icy voice, “ insist 
upon it that you do nothing of the kind.” 

“ Stephen ! ” cried Julia, looking at him in amaze- 
ment. 

He answered the look straight into her eyes. 
“ Yes,” he said, coldly, “ I don’t ask you. I simply 
insist that you never breathe this ridiculous idea of 
yours to a living soul ! Do you think that I am 
going to allow you, my wife, to make such a fool of 
yourself as to carelessly cast a foul suspicion on a 
well-known man, a mere suspicion, one that has 
absolutely no grounds whatever but the coincidence 
of a name ? Why, you must be mad to dream of 
such a thing ! ” 

Julia rose to her feet. “ I am not mad at all, 
Stephen,” she said with dignity, “and it is not 
right of you to speak to me in that way if T were. 
I have something more than mere suspicion. Why, 
if it was all right, was an old friend of forty years’ 
standing so confused when he met Miss Theodosia ? 

17 


258 


MRS. BOB. 


I ask you was his manner all right ? Was his way 
of accepting the invitation for to-night that of an 
old friend? Was he not confused, strained, uncom- 
fortable looking ? Did he not give you the impres- 
sion of a man who would gladly get out of it if he 
could?” 

“ Yes, he did, and so I dare say he would have 
done,” answered Stephen promptly. “ Remember 
this man was spoony on Miss Lavinia years and 
years ago — probably as far as back as five and thirty 
years since. And it is very likely that he got over 
all that nearly as many years ago and that as a 
matter of fact he would rather walk up to a cannon’s 
mouth than come and talk over the past with an old 
lady who would be likely to rake up just what he 
most wanted to forget. And apart from that you 
have got a great many people to consider besides 
him. Probably, if it was true that he had taken 
the jewels and you could clearly prove it. Miss 
Theodosia would rather lose twenty times as much 
than convict an old friend of his position. Not for a 
moment that I wish to imply that I have any belief 
in or sympathy with your absurd fancies. The whole 
thing is preposterous on the very face of it. Why 
you might as well accuse me of it — better, for I 
should do nothing and he would certainly at once 
enter an action against you, and very properly too.” 

“ I believe he did it,” said Julia obstinately. 

“ Well, whether you believe it or not it is not 
your place to give an opinion. You have absolutely 
nothing to gain by it,” he went on, “and it can 


THE TRUTH AT LAST. 


259 


make no real difference to you whether Laura ever 
wears those rubies or not. Anyway, I must beg 
that you will be silent on the subject.” 

“Well, I think I ought to tell Miss Theodosia and 
then she can do as she likes about following it up,” 
said Julia. The Traffords were all alike in one 
respect, they possessed a wonderful tenacity of pur- 
pose ; and J ulia in particular when once firmly 
possessed of an idea did not easily give it up. 

Stephen Howard uttered an exclamation of im- 
patience and disgust. “ You must do nothing of 
the sort,” he cried. “ Can’t you see how unwise and 
impolitic such an idea is. Just think of the con- 
sequences if you prove to be wrong — and just think 
of the consequences if you prove to be right. Julia, 
my dear child, I beg, I implore of you to give up 
this foolish scheme.” 

He was so terribly in earnest that he caught her 
hands in his and Julia felt that they were trembling 
with excitement. For a moment or so they stood 
facing one another, then she drew her hands away 
and moved a step or two back. “ You have put a 
new idea into my head,” she said shortly. 

“ Thank God,” said he, in a tone of relief. 

<c I don’t know about that,” she returned in a 
frozen sort of tone — “ but I will not mention this 
idea of mine to Miss Theodosia or any of the others, 
not without letting you know it, that is.” 

Stephen walked to the window and looked out— » 
his wife followed him with her eyes and saw that he 
was shaking visibly, saw that he drew his hand across 

17 * 


260 


MBS. BOB. 


his eyes and then passed his handkerchief across his 
forehead . 

44 1 wish yon would go away a little and leave me 
alone,” she said, after a few minutes had gone by — > 
44 I want to think this all out.” 

He turned round from the window and came close 
to her. “ Juey — my own love,” he said, 44 take my 
advice — Don't think it out. Let sleeping dogs lie ! 
No good can come to you by arousing them.” 

44 1 will see,” was all she said— 44 1 must think 
first.” 

44 Kiss me before I go,” he said humbly — 44 and if 
I used words to you just now which were hard, for- 
give me, darling — I was so anxious that you should 
not take a step lightly the consequences of which 
would be irrevocable.” 

And so Julia kissed him and uttered the words of 
forgiveness for which he had pleaded with such 
eloquent looks and tones. And when he had gone 
she sat down to think over the new idea which his 
anxiety that she should not raise any further ques- 
tion about the jewel robbery had suggested to her 
mind. Ah me ! it was the darkest hour of her 
whole life, that when she sat down face to face with 
the horrible and loathly idea that this Colonel 
Adeane was one of a gang of scientific thieves, and 
that her husband, her lord, her king, was another ! 

Exactly how the idea was born in her mind she 
did not know — it might have been a look of fear in 
Stephen’s handsome eyes— it might have been the 
urgency with which he insisted, begged, implored, 


THE TRUTH AT LAST. 


261 


her to keep silence — it might have been some swift 
and sudden piecing together of fragments of evidence 
and incidents which had puzzled her in the past — it 
might have been any or all of these things, any- 
way certain it is that in the flash of a moment, the 
twinkling of an eye, much that before had puzzled 
her suddenly became clear, that which she had not 
been able to understand all at once became as an 
open book to her, clear as the sun at noontide ; and 
when the realness of it all fairly dawned upon her, 
Julia Howard crouched down into the big chair and 
wept, poor girl, as if her heart would break. 

She had not moved when, more than an hour after- 
wards, her husband came up again. 

f< They want to know if you will go for a little 
drive this afternoon ? ” he began, then when she 
raised her face he cried — “ Oh ! my darling, what is 
it?” 

She lifted herself up wearily. “No, tell them 
I’ve got a headache — I want to rest for the 
present.” 

“ And I may come back ? ” he asked. 

“ Yes, I want you.” 

So presently he came upstairs again. “ Lock the 
door,” she said, “ and come and sit here on the sofa 
beside me. I have a great deal to tell you.” 

He did her bidding and sat down beside her, put- 
ting his arm round her waist as he always did when 
they had confidential talks together. Then he kissed 
her and waited for her to go on. 

“ I told you,” she began in a dull voice of pain — 


262 


MRS. BOB. 


“ that a new idea had suggested itself to me. Well, 
I have been thinking, thinking, thinking about it 
until I feel as if my brain would burst. I must tell 
you everything that has presented itself to my mind 
and I must go back to the first time that you ever 
came to our house. If you remember Mrs. Lovelace 
came that afternoon.” 

“ Yes, I remember.” 

“ I had occasion, or to be accurate occasion arose, 
to mention her diamonds and you asked me care- 
lessly enough if she had fine diamonds ? I told you 
— I remember it perfectly — that she sometimes 
blazed like a jeweller’s shop. Well, not very long 
after that we went to stay at Matcham and whilst 
we were there Lady Lucifer’s jewels were stolen 

“ And my sister’s,” he put in quickly. 

“Yes,” said Julia significantly, “ and your 
sister's . It was not long after that that Mrs. Love- 
lace’s diamonds were obtained by a cleverly thought 
out plan, so cleverly thought out that if she had 
not happened to have been at the Mauleverers’ 
during the whole of that afternoon, she would pro- 
bably always have believed that Alice Mauleverer 
had stolen them. After that three other large 
houses in the immediate neighbourhood were robbed, 
and then this great robbery took place at Little 
Street Hall.” 

“Well,” said Stephen — “you are telling me a 
great deal that I already know. What do you make 
of all this ? ” With an immense effort Julia braced 


THE TKUTH AT LAST. 


263 


herself up to tell the rest. “ I think, Stephen,” she 
said sadly, tc that if you and the Markhams had re- 
mained in Australia, it is very unlikely that these 
particular robberies would have been committed.” 

He neither started nor let go his hold of her 
waist. “ My dear,” he said with perfect calmness— 
“ if anyone but yourself had said this to me I should 
have taken it very differently. A woman I should 

have invited to go to my lawyer, a man 1 would 

have thrashed within an inch of his life. With you 
it is different — I am sure it must pain you far more 
to say and what is worse think all this, than it does 
me to hear it. But have you thought out seriously 
what it is that you accuse me of? Literally of 
being n, thief and in connection with a gang of 
thieves. Remember, Juey, my dear, it is a dreadful 
charge — one which it is perhaps lucky for you that 
you have made against your husband who is not 
likely to use it against you.” 

“ Yes. I have thought about it seriously enough, 
Stephen, God knows,” she cried with sudden passion 
— “ God knows,” she repeated miserably. “ Thought 
about it, why I have been thinking until my head 
feels ready to burst ” 

« My dearest child, your poor little bursting head 
will be raging with delirium if you let these wild 
ideas take root in it,” he said tenderly. “ But now 
look at the other side of the question — neither I 
nor Bob and his wife have ever been at Little 
Street Hall in our lives ; so how do you imagine we 
can have carried out this robbery ? ” 


264 


MRS. BOB. 


“ I have thought of all that,” she said wearily. 
“ Last year did not my mother go there ? Did not 
she go to stay with Maimie immediately after she 
returned home to St. Eve’s ? Well, she happened 
to tell me not long after as a proof of Maimie’s kind- 
ness of heart, that she had been so interested in the 
old ladies and in her visit, and how she had asked 
just how they lived and what their house was like, 
and all the rest of it. Oh! Stevie — Stevie,” she 
ended wretchedly, “ I never thought it would come 
to this.” 

<c My dearest child,” he said soothingly — “ as yet 
it has come to nothing at all. I assure you, you are 
worrying yourself very unnecessarily about a mere 
fancy. Of course if you like to let your imagination 
run wild it is the simplest thing in the world to 
build up a chain of supposititious evidence out of 
fancy alone — I for instance, might believe you to be 
a murderess, but that you know, would not make 
you one.” 

“ Can you deny it ? ” she burst out at last. 

“ Certainly I can,” he answered. 

“ Do you deny it ? ” 

“ Yes — I do deny it. I can and will swear that I 
have all my life kept my hands from picking and 
stealing — all my life.” 

“ Then why — ” she demanded — “ why did you 
make a plan of Orford Place while we were staving 
there ? ” 

“ Of Orford Place — Juey ! ” he cried — <e What in 
Heaven’s name are you talking about ? ” 


THE TRUTH AT LAST. 


265 


She beat her hand impatiently upon her knee 
once or twice — then turned fully to him. “ You 
remember our staying at Orford Place ? ” 

“ Of course I do.” 

“ Then you may remember too that I went to a 
bazaar with Lady Ceespring and the others — ” 

“ Yes.” 

“ And that you stayed behind — to write letters ? 99 

“Well?” s 

“Well, when I came home, I sat down on 
the arm of your chair to talk to you and I noticed 
that you had been making a plan, as if you had 
been idly drawing in the blot ting-book. I asked 
you why you had been making a plan and you 
put me off carelessly — I)o you remember all 
this?” 

“ No , I don’t — but go on.” 

“ Well, I thought no more of it just then, but 
down stairs during tea, Madge Orford asked me for 
an address, and when I went up to dress for dinner 
I went to the writing-table to write it down and then 
I saw that the leaf of the blotting-book had been torn 
out — it was gone ! ” 

“ And yet there has been no robbery at Orford 
Place,” said he half-laughing. 

“Shall I tell you why ? Because the Ceesprings 
happened not to have been at Orford Place since ; 
that is why.” 

“ Upon my word, you would make an excellent 
detective,” he exclaimed satirically. 

“ Oh ! Stevie,” she cried, the tears rushing into 


266 


MRS. BOB. 


her eyes, “ don’t speak like that — it is too serious 
— too awful. And I — I am so unhappy.” 

He caught her eagerly in his arms. “ Julia — my 
love, my dearest,” he cried — “ do let me beg and 
pray of you to put all this nonsense out of your 
mind— It will ruin our happiness, my dear, we who 
love one another so.” 

“ Stevie,” she said brokenly — “ will you tell me 
everything about that gold-mine that you said you 
had an interest in ? ” 

“ Dear child, if I had been free to tell I should 
have told you when you asked me about it,” he 
answered. 

“ I will never breathe a word to a soul — I will 
take the most solemn oath never to divulge a word 
to any living being,” she said eagerly. “ And if you 
will tell me I will promise faithfully that I will 
never mention this subject to you again as long as I 
live.” 

He still shook his head. “ You put a dreadful 
temptation in my way, dearest,” hejsaid wistfully — 
“but all the same I cannot tell you. I have given 
my word and I cannot break it even for you.” 

“ You will not ? ” 

“ It is not a case of will or will not,” he answered, 
“ it is impossible 'for me to tell you. I have given 
you my word that I never stole anything in my life, 
and that must be enough for you. At least if it is 
not I cannot help it. I am very very sorry but I 
cannot help it.” 

She remained silent for a few moments, and then 


THE TRUTH AT LAST. 


267 


she suddenly turned and looked at him, “ Stevie,” 
she said, “ if you will answer me one question on 
your sacred word of honour I will believe that I 
have wronged you utterly and vilely to-day.” 

“ I will answer you if I can,” he replied. 

“ You say that you never stole anything in your 
life. Well, on your word of honour will you assure 
me that you are not mixed up with a gang of men 
who do steal and who make stealing their profession, 
and that you have never given these people infor- 
mation ? Answer me that question, and on your 
answer I will stake my belief one way or the other.” 

She was so desperately in earnest, she looked so 
true and good, so eager for his denial that for some 
minutes he sat staring at her like one fascinated. 
She had taken hold of him by the arm with both 
hands in her anxiety to get at the truth, and as she 
satfhere she saw what the answer would be in the 
depths of his handsome eyes. 

“ No,” he said at last, slowly and very unwillingly 
but as if the truth was being wrung from him in 
spite of himself. " I cannot tell you that.” 

For a moment she still looked back into his eyes, 
then her hands fell nervelessly from his arm — “ I 
knew it,” she moaned — “ I knew it ! ” 


268 


MBS. BOB. 


CHAPTER XXIV. 

“WELL ? ” 

“ Great sinners and great saints are made of much the same 
stuff. The man who commits tremendous crimes is the man who, 
under different conditions, would have been capable of deeds of 
unparalleled daring, or heroic self-sacrifice.” 

For a long time neither of them spoke or moved — 
Julia sat still as a woman does sit when a terrible 
blow has just fallen upon her, and Stephen Howard 
had sunk back against the head of the sofa like one 
utterly exhausted. In the mind of each there raged 
a wild fury of ideas ; on his side of anger that he 
had not been able to look at her and tell the one lie 
which would have ensured her future belief in him, 
of awful dread of a future which he would have to 
live out without her, of contempt at his unspeakable 
folly in not having secured safety before his mar- 
riage by burning his boats behind him. And on 
Julia’s side there was quite as conflicting a crowd of 
thoughts ! She thought of the blow such know- 
ledge would be to her people ; that Miss Theodosia 
would certainly never leave Anthony Staunton her 
twelve thousand a year now ; she thought of how all 
her friends would sneer if the truth came out, those 


"WELL? 


269 


who had flattered and fawned upon her most of all ; 
she thought of how they would sneer and invent 
wonderful tales “ on the best authority ” if she and 
Stephen parted — and the very thought of parting 
with Stephen brought the hot tears to her eyes and 
made her realize how utterly and entirely she loved 
him still in spite of everything. Involuntarily when 
she reached this point she put out her hand and laid 
it on his. 

He started violently as he felt the soft touch. 
“ Well, what are you going to do?” he asked, 
almost roughly, yet with a suspicious break in his 
voice. 

“ Oh ! Stevie — Stevie,” she cried piteously. “ I 
do love you so. I do love you so ! ” 

The reply was so different from the torrent of 
reproaches that he had been expecting, that he, 
strong man though he was, broke down altogether. 
He flung himself at her feet and hid his face upon 
her knee and burst into violent sobbing. And Julia 
bent down over him and put her arms about him 
and soothed him tenderly. “ Don’t cry, Stevie,” she 
kept saying — “ don’t cry like that, darling.” 

At last he grew calm and presently was able to 
speak. “ I thought you were never going to have 
anything more to do with me,” he said with a 
shudder. “ I thought you didn’t mean to own 
me again. I thought you were going away from 
me.” 

But Julia held him close in her arms against her 
faithful woman’s heart and laid her cheek against 


270 


MRS. BOB. 


his throbbing head. “ No, no, not that, dear,” she 
said. “ I won’t — indeed I can’t pretend that all 
this is not an awful blow to me. I feel as if I have 
lived a life-time of misery in the last few hours. 
But I am not going to leave you — I am no doll, no 
fair weather wife. I told -you so once before.” 

For a long time he did not say anthing, but at 
last he spoke. 

“ I’ve been such an outcast all my life — I never 
knew what sunshine was until you came into my 
life and gladdened every hour I lived. I can never 
make you understand quite what my past has been 
— what I was born to, a heritage of what the world 
calls sin and we called only business. You know, 
Juey, there is no very hard and fast line between 
the man who helps himself out of the wealth of rich 
men who can afford to lose and do not take the 
trouble to look after the safety of what they set so 
much value on after they lose them, and the man 
who deliberately swindles the widow and the orphan 
by getting them to put their bit of money into 
bogus companies. I won’t excuse myself, Juey — 
but I tell you this that I should never have gone 
into this of my own free will. I should never have 
gone into it at all if I had not been born to it, 
brought up to it just as I might have been to any 
other profession.” 

“ You are mixed up with others — can you tell me 
nothing about it ? ” 

“ Absolutely nothing,” he answered — “in fact I 
know very little myself, and what I know I am 


WELL?** 


271 


bound never to divulge under any circumstances, 
not even to save my own life.” 

“ Can you free yourself from this society ? ” 

« Yes.” 

“ Under what conditions ? ” 

“ By taking additional oaths of secrecy.” 

“ And you will set yourself free at once ? ” she 
asked anxiously. 

“ I will do anything that you like, dear,” he said. 
“ You shall do what you will with me. To-morrow 
if you will let me leave you here I will go to head- 
quarters and take the oaths which will free me for 
ever. After that I shall have no will but yours.” 

“And you will never never go into this life 
again ? ” she urged. 

“ Never — I swear it on my honour,” he answered 
solemnly. 

Neither he nor she noticed that the phrase came 
somewhat oddly from him. To Julia’s ears it 
sounded all right, for she had more than once 
tempted him sorely to break his word and she had 
not succeeded in doing so. And Stephen himself 
had always, apart from his profession , lived the life 
strictly of a man of the most rigid honour and would 
no more have helped himself to a shilling out of his 
neighbour’s purse than he would have struck his 
wife across the face. 

To some people this may read as an impossible 
character but believe me it is not so, it is no more 
impossible than it is impossible for thousands of 
well-born, well-educated men of honour who go into 


272 


MRS. BOB. 


God’s House of their own free will and take the 
most solemn oaths of fidelity before God and man, 
and afterwards hold them so lightly that our divorce 
courts are filled to overflowing and a husband who 
really loves his wife after a matter of ten years or so 
is looked upon as a curiosity, as if he were some 
strange animal with habits which need studying 
because they are so unusual. 

Nor are the men only to blame in this respect — ■ 
there are plenty of wives in England, especially in 
London, whose behaviour is a disgrace to their 
woman-hood and a shame to themselves. For in- 
stance I know one little woman who was married a 
few months ago. She is not in the least degree 
pretty though she gives herself the airs of an 
acknowledged beauty. She has a little air of tossing 
her head and a spontaneous sort of grin which 
comes into play on all occasions in season and out of 
season, and otherwise she is a little skinny ungrace- 
ful bunch of bones with a nut-cracker nose and chin 
and a mole on her cheek. She is still young, but 
not quite so young as she gives out, and she is 
utterly and entirely and I fear irretrievably silly in 
every respect. 

Well, this young person’s husband is a fine good- 
looking young fellow, a trifle slow perhaps but dis- 
tinctly honest. He is already so impressed with his 
little wife’s utter foolishness that he spends his time 
for the most part in an agony of fear that she will 
one day do something too foolish and childish for 
words. The result is that she goes freely about 


“ WELL?*’ 


273 


bleating of the trial that dear Jack’s jealousy is to 
her. “ I’ve only been married four months ” — she 
explains — “ and it is hard I can’t speak to any other 
man because dear Jack is so jealous,” and so on. 
Well, at last I found out what this nice young per- 
son’s ambition was ! What do you think ? To 
have an attendant man ! A man who will go from 
one dowdy afternoon to another dowdy afternoon 
and be at her beck and call, to stand by while she 
flirts with* other men and thankfully accept the 
crumbs that fall from her Beautyship’s table ! Little 
idiot ! So as she is not attractive enough to secure 
a really smart man, and as several very smart men, 
to my knowledge, do not care to see poor “ Jack ” 
on the grill, she has to content herself with an 
ancient beau, who has been the laughing-stock of 
society for many and many a year. For my own 
part, I don’t think poor “Jack” is brilliant but, 
hang me, if I wouldn’t rather spend an hour talking 
to him any day than to the pompous old mummy 
whom Mrs. Jack drags from one place to another 
with such an air of coquetry and pride. 

Yet Mrs. Jack would be mightily offended if any- 
one ventured to question her right to be called an 
honest woman, or even hinted that she was not 
doing her duty by her husband. And the men who 
are literally living two lives would be vastly offended 
if one dared to cast a doubt upon the lustre of that 
which they proudly call their honour I Dear, dear, 
what a quaint#world this is. 

“ We must go away, Stephen,” said Julia sud^ 

18 


274 


MRS. BOB. 


denly after a few minutes. “ Oh. ! yes, indeed we 
must. I should always live in the direst dread of 
the whole truth coming to light, and if it ever did I 
should die of shame. I know that I ought — if I 
was a Spartan good kind of wife — to urge you to 
give every farthing you have to a hospital and your- 
self to the law. But I’m not a Spartan and I think 
I never was very good, and I can’t bring myself to 
do anything except to beg that you will give it all 
up and come away with me to a place of safety and 
let us try to forget that these things, these dreadful 
things, have ever been, and help one another to live 
a good and quiet life in the future.” 

He was almost struck dumb by her words, by the 
mercifulness of her decision — for he had expected 
something utterly different. And he laid his head 
against her shoulder and made a mighty vow within 
his own heart that by hook or by crook — no, God 
help him, not by crook — he would turn to a different 
kind of work and make two fortunes, one for his 
wife to spend as she would, the other that she 
might endow some charity with at least twice as 
much as he had ever drawn from the company with 
which he had been associated almost ever since he 
could remember. 

But I must say that Stephen Howard felt no 
more shame at his “ profession ” than did ever any 
highwayman of old. He was grieved that the wife 
whom he adored should be distressed and he was 
angry with himself for having placed Jier in a posi- 
tion of some risk — beyond this, however, he only 


“WELL? 


275 


thought it a pity that everything had come to 
light. 

“ Stevie — my dear,” Julia said at last — “ there is 
one question I want to ask you. It is about Bob 
and Maimie. They belong to this dreadful society 
too?” 

“ I can’t tell you — don’t ask me,” he said in great 
distress. 

“ But Bob at least does — I am sure of it.” 

“ My darling, I beg of you to let that question 
rest. And pray ” — he cried — “ do let me implore 
of you to say no word which will cast suspicion 
upon my sister. Promise me you will do this.” 

“ Yes,” she said — “ I will promise you. I have 
my own thoughts about it Stevie — I know what I 
think. And now let me say just one thing more — • 
it is that as long as you keep faith with me — and I 
know that you will — I will never mention this 
subject to you again. Let it be as if this discovery 
of mine had never been made, for if it is constantly 
being discussed and ragged over between us, we 
shall only have a miserable and wretched life, and 
indeed it would be better to part at once.” 

“ Oh ! Juey,” he cried — “ how good, how gener- 
ous you are.” 

“ Nay,” she answered with a touch of her old 
sarcasm, “you had best say nothing about that. 
There’s a saying you know, which says 4 It’s easy 
work burying other folks’ bairns,’ so we might read 
it 6 It’s easy work forgiving other folks’ losses,’ ” — 
and then, poor girl, the strain became too much for 

18 * 


276 


MRS. ROB. 


her and she burst out crying and hid her poor 
flushed shamed face upon the breast which in strict 
justice she ought to have scorned but which in 
reality this dreadful trouble seemed only to have 
made dearer than it had been before. 


CHAPTER XXV. 

A BRAVE FRONT TO THE WORLD. 

“ Two things ought to be the object of our fear, 

The envy of friends and the hatred of enemies.” 

— Bias, 

But Julia’s weakness soon passed. She was a young 
woman of marvellous energy, and before she went 
down to dinner that evening— which she did 
wearing a charming white gown and such a bright 
smile that not even her mother guessed at the 
existence of the aching heart it covered — she had 
already arranged their plans. 

“ We must get out of this earlier than we 
intended, Stevie,” she told him. “ We must get 
home as soon as possible — and I think you had 
better be ill as soon as you possibly can and go up 
to Town to consult a doctor. You know we must 
give some reason for our leaving England — we can- 
not give up our flat and go off just at this time 
with no more apparent cause then a mere freak. 
But if you find the English climate tries your 
lungs, we can quite easily manage it.” 

K But must we give up cur flat ? ” he ex- 
claimed. 


A BRAVE FRONT TO THE WORLD. 277 

“ Oh ! Stephen, yes — I should never know 
another moment’s peace — I should never care to 
live there again,” she cried. “ Now listen ; this is 
what I should do. You go to Town to-morrow to 
consult a doctor — write to me to-morrow to say 
that you are to see him the next day. Write the 
next day and say that you are most imperatively 
advised not to stay another winter in England 
and in fact that the sooner you get out of Eng- 
land the better. Then suggest a steam yacht.” 

44 A steam yacht ! ” he cried. 

“Yes. Why not? We must live somewhere,” 
she answered, mildly. 44 If we have a yacht of our 
own we can take everything we most value in 
Victoria Street with us. Quite half the things 
could be used for fitting her up.” 

44 But you, Juey — how will you like it ? ” he 
cried. 

44 Oh ! I am a very good sailor,” she answered. 

44 But I wanted to turn to work of some kind,” he 
exclaimed. 44 1 mean to make a fortune.” 

44 So you can. We can more easily store a yacht 
than get a house taken care of,” she answered. 
44 Besides you must have some time to find out 
what you can do, or find to do. Depend upon it 
the yacht is the best scheme we have hit on yet.” 

44 Then it shall be a yacht,” he answered. 

So at dinner-time Julia went down saying brightly 
that her head was better, almost well in fact, 
although, as Miss Theodosia told her kindly, any- 
one could see she had not been well by the dark 


278 


MRS. BOB. 


rings under her eyes. And then she said that she 
was a little anxious about Stephen’s health, she 
was afraid everything was not well with him here,” 
laying her hand lightly on that part of herself 
which might be taken to indicate the heart or the 
lungs as the observer thought proper. 

“ But don’t talk about it to-night,” she said, 
when Miss Theodosia and Mrs. Trafford broke out 
into simultaneous expressions of regret. “ It may 
be nothing. If you don’t mind, Miss Theodosia, 
Stephen will go up to Town to-morrow and have a 
good opinion.” 

Thus prompted the two older ladies cast careful 
glances at Stephen when he came downstairs, and 
as traces of the storm through which he and Julia 
had just passed were still plainly to be seen on his 
face, Mrs. Trafford and Miss Theodosia were not far 
wrong in saying that he really was looking very 
ill, poor fellow, so ill that they wondered how it 
was possible they had never noticed it before. 

On the whole it was a very pleasant evening. 
Colonel Adeane came in good time, looking hand- 
somer in evening clothes than he had done in 
the morning, and he took Mrs. Trafford in to 
dinner and sat between her and Miss Theodosia, 
who forebore to talk to him very much about poor 
dead and gone Lavinia, on whom he had been so 
“ spoony ” five and thirty years before. He was 
very pleasant and a particularly intelligent man to 
talk to, and he and Mrs. Trafford discovered so 
many mutual friends that they became great 


A BRAVE FRONT TO THE WORLD. 279 

friends before the meal came to an end. And 
Miss Theodosia suddenly took it into her dear old 
head that they were flirting desperately, on which 
her enjoyment of the scene became so exquisite 
that she nearly smiled herself into tears. 

However, before the meal was over, Julia began 
to look very wan and white. “ Do have a glass of 
port, Juey,” said Stephen, coaxingly, when dessert 
was put on. 

And Julia had a glass of port, and then the 
ladies went off into the drawing-room and left the 
two men to make friends without them. 

“You look so poorly, Julia, dear,” said Mrs. 
Trafford when they reached the drawing-room. 

“I don’t feel very well to-night, Mother,” Julia 
answered. The strain of keeping up appearances 
had proved almost too much for her, and now her 
mother’s tone almost broke her down again. 

“ No, my dear, you cannot possibly feel very 
well when you are anxious and nervous about 
your husband,” cried Miss Theodosia, tenderly. 
“ Lie down on that sofa till they come in and 
have a little rest. I am sure, my dear, if nobody 
knew it, you would much more easily pass for an 
invalid than Stephen, though certainly he looks 
anything but well to-night, poor fellow.” 

I think that I have always described Julia 
Howard as a very plucky young woman, and 
truly that night she had need of all her pluck and 
all her resolution to bear up against the tender 
interest with which these two talked matters over 


280 


MES. BOB. 


— she felt so shamed, so degraded, by the know- 
ledge which had so suddenly and mf expectedly 
come to her that day ; she felt so false to be sitting 
there as if nothing out of the common had taken 
place, with the mother who believed everything to 
be fair and straight with her and the old lady who 
had been bereft of her beautiful jewels, if not 
actually by Stephen yet assuredly by the gang with 
which he had been associated. Oh ! I can tell you it 
was a bitter pill that Julia Howard swallowed when 
she sat down and deliberately broke the bread of 
deception and dishonour with those who loved and 
trusted her. 

And yet she could not see her way to doing other- 
wise. She had married Stephen, she had taken him 
for better and for worse, and since it had proved to 
be for worse she could not see that her duty to him 
was any the less urgent or her promises less binding. 
Aye, and not only her duty to him — her duty to her 
own plighted troth ! 

She was still of the same opinion about Colonel 
Adeane. She still believed that he was the Frank 
of whom poor Miss Lavinia had spoken on that 
eventful night. She had watched him closely 
during the whole of dinner, and to her mind it was 
exactly as she had expressed it to Stephen earlier in 
the day — “he had guilt stamped on his face.” 
Stephen, however, had said positively that he had 
never set eyes on him or even heard of him in all 
his life before so that she might be utterly wrong. 
And in any case she had now no desire to impart 




A BRAVE FRONT TO THE WORLD. 281 

her suspicions to Miss Theodosia, who had it was 
very evident the most affectionate regard for him. 

“ He is such a dear fellow,” the old lady was saying 
at that moment to Mrs. Trafford. “ I do hope you will 
see something of him whilst you are here. I have 
known him for forty years. We were always very 
fond of him, Lavinia and I.” 

“ Oh ! I found him very pleasant,” returned Mrs. 
Trafford, promptly. “ I don’t wonder you are fond 
of him. Did you like him, Julia ?” 

“ Oh ! pretty well,” said Julia, carelessly ; “ but 
he did not take much notice of me, you know.” 

She was quite thankful when the two men came 
in, and all such conversation was made impossible, 
and she was more thankful when Colonel Adeane at 
last went away and she was free to plead weariness 
and go to bed. And so that black dreadful day 
came to an end at last* 


282 


MRS. BOB. 


CHAPTER XXVI. 

EXILE! 

•• Shall we sit idly down and say, 

‘ The night hath come ; it is no longer day ? * 

The night hath not yet come ; we are not quite 
Cut off from labour by the failing light.” 

— Morituei Salutamus. 

After that everything fell out very much as Mrs. 
Stephen had intended. The following morning 
Stephen went up to Town, and when Julia came 
down the morning after that for breakfast, she 
brought with her the news that he had an appoint- 
ment with Sir Fergus Tiffany for that morning at 
one o’clock. 

And about three o’clock in the afternoon, just as 
they were going out for a drive, she received a 
telegram which said — “ I saw Fergus Tiffany this 
morning. Am strongly urged to leave England at 
once. Come back as soon as you conveniently can.” 

“ I ought to go back at once,” she said looking 
doubtfully at Miss Theodosia. 

“ My dear,” said the old lady. “ God forbid that 
I should wish to keep you a single hour away under 
such circumstances. Pray go at once , my dear, and 




EXILE ! 


283 


your maid shall follow with yonr things by the six 
o’clock train if she can get ready to catch it. If 
not she shall come by the first train in the morning. 
If you go to the station now you will just get 
across in time to catch the next train up to Town.” 

Thus hurried, Julia ran up to her room, asked her 
maid for her jewel and dressing-case, took a travel- 
ling cloak and one or two trifles which she was likely 
to want on the journey and was down stairs again 
before the carriage was at the door. 

“ I am so sorry to leave you like this,” she said to 
Miss Theodosia as they bowled along — “ but indeed 
it is necessary that I should go.” 

“ Imperative, my dear,” cried Mrs. Trafford who 
was overflowing with sympathy. 

i( Oh ! my dear,” the old lady exclaimed — “ you 
must not say a word, not a word. I understand so 
well — I so thoroughly sympathize with you, and I do 
so hope and pray that it will not prove anything 
serious with Stephen. He is such a dear fellow, 
so good and kind and chivalrous. Oh ! I do so trust 
it will prove to be but a mere scare.” 

You may imagine the state of poor Julia’s feelings, 
how she writhed and groaned within herself, how 
her cheeks burnt and her eyes seemed afraid to look 
up and encounter the kind orbs of the sweet old 
lady who had been wronged so fearfully by that 
dreadful society! 

“ I expect we shall have to get away at once,” she 
murmured, feeling that she was expected to say 
something. 




284 


MRS. BOB. 


“ Oh ! evidently so. And my dear,” said Miss 
Theodosia — “ you will let me know what your plans 
are ? I should like to come up and see the last of 
you — I could not let you go without saying good 
bye to you and wishing you Grod-speed.” 

The poor girl nearly broke down at this. “ Oh ! 
Miss Theodosia, how good and kind you are,” she 
burst out. “ You don’t know, you will never know, 
how it comforts me to have you say that ; and yet 
— yet — ” and then she broke off short and turned 
her eyes, burning now with scalding tears, away 
from the other occupants of the carriage. 

Miss Theodosia took her hand and held it in her's 
for the rest of the way, smoothing it and patting it 
as if she was a troubled child. Mrs. Trafford with 
suspiciously bright eyes, said “ Julie, dear, would 
you like me to go with you ? Because if you would 
I can, and Amelia can bring my things at the same 
time as yours.” 

“I would much rather go alone,” answered Julia 
in a choking voice. 

So they let her go alone, and at Southampton she 
telegraphed to Stephen that she was coming. And 
what a journey it was for her, poor girl ; for she 
felt when she had said her last good-bye to those 
two as if she had said good-bye to a clear conscience 
and the safety of honesty for ever; she felt as if 
she was driving out of the clear air of early morning 
into the lurid blood red light of a thundery sunset. 
She felt as if the earth would hold no more peace 
for her, not if she should live to a hundred years old. 


EXILE « 


285 


My poor girl, it was a bitter bitter day for her when 
she parted from her mother and Miss Theodosia and 
went up to make such arrangements as would put 
the man she loved beyond the reach of the strong 
arm of the laws which he had broken. And yet she 
loved him even in that hour of shame and bitterness 
better than she had ever loved him in all the time 
she had known him. 

Stephen met her at the London terminus and had 
brought the brougham to take her home. 

“ You have done everything ? ” was her first 
eager question. 

<c My dearest, everything,” he answered. “ I am 
now perfectly free of the past, so let your mind be 
easy on that point. I ha& a long consultation with 
our chief yesterday and, of course, I told him exactly 
why I wanted to resign.” 

“ You told him about me ? ” 

“ Yes.” 

“ That — that I — I had — 99 

66 Found out everything? Yes. I told him all. 
And he was perfectly reasonable — he said that if you 
felt like that about it, it would be very much happier 
for everybody that I cut myself off at once. All the 
same he was awfully struck with your quickness— in 
fact he said — but there, I had better not tell you 
that.” 

“ Yes, tell me,” she cried eagerly, 

“ You won’t be vexed ? " 

“ Oh ! no.” 

“ Well,” half unwillingly — “ he said that you 


286 


MRS. BOB. 


would have been such a credit to the society that it 
was a thousand pities your sympathies went to the 
other side.” 

44 Oh ! Stephen,” she cried. 

44 Well, dearest, this man — who is too kind-hearted 
to hurt a fly and would starve before he would 
defraud a poor widow of one single farthing — looks 
at this scheme from a different stand-point to your- 
self. He thinks the acquisition of property is per- 
fectly justifiable and looks upon the law as an old 
fool's wisdom which ought tq be materially im- 
proved.” 

44 Yes, you are right, I daresay — but I have not 
yet got used to thinking even of a new law on the 
question of property. As to myself,” with a faint 
smile — 44 my dear Stevie, even if my conscience did 
not stand in the way, I should make a very poor 
member of this guild. I haven’t got pluck enough 
to begin with.” 

44 No - no — I don’t want you to have pluck enough 
for that, dearest — otherwise,” he said tenderly, 44 you 
are the pluckiest little woman I ever knew in my 
life.” 

They sat for a few minutes in silence — 44 Stevie,” 
she said at last— 44 1 would rather not part with the 
brougham.” 

44 Then you shall not,” he answered. 

44 Could I give it to my mother to keep till I come 
back?” 

44 To be sure — but in that case you ought to pay 
for its keep.” 


EXILE I 


287 


“ I could do that. Anyway I would rather not 
part with it,” she said. 

Now this to Stephen was very good news. He 
had no desire to exile himself from England for 
ever, though he would cheerfully have consented to 
do so in order to secure his wife’s peace of mind. 
But what he now most wanted to do was to go away 
until her conscience was more used to the facts which 
she had just learned and her mind satisfied that it 
was perfectly safe for him to come back, and then 
for them to return that he might look about him 
and go into some sort of business, for Stephen hated 
a perfectly idle life and meant moreover to lose very 
little time in making those two fortunes of which I 
spoke a little while ago. 

44 By the bye,” he said presently when they were 
sitting comfortably at dinner — and Julia was not a 
little surprised to find how home-like and peaceful 
everything looked, the terrible ^ tumult in her heart 
notwithstanding — 44 by the bye, dear, I have heard 
of a capital steam-yacht.” 

44 Yes ? ” There was a servant in the room so 
Julia was compelled to take a proper amount of 
interest in his remarks. 

“ Yes, the Dauntless. She is nearly four-hundred 
tons and to be had at what is really a bargain.” 

44 Yes ! And how is that ? ” 

44 Oh ! her owner died suddenly and there is not 
so much money left as was expected. The executors 
want to get rid of it at once. I want you to go and 
look over her to-morrow.” 


288 


MRS. BOB. 


“ Very well,” said Julia — fC and if you buy her 
how soon shall we start ? ” 

“ She could not be ready sooner than a fortnight,” 
he answered 

“ Oh ! not sooner than that ? ” cried Julia in 
dismay. 

“My dear, it is quite soon enough,” Stephen 
replied soothingly. “ Just consider what an im- 
mense amount of business there will be to get 
through. By the bye, have you decided whether to 
take Am&lie or not ? ” 

“ Am&lie would like to go — she is a good sailor,” 
Julia answered. 

Stephen was quite right — there was an immense 
amount of business to be got through during the 
next few days, but they managed to get it all done 
in time to start from London at the end of the fort- 
night. There was so much more to do than to an 
outsider might seem absolutely necessary — so many 
more arrangements to be made than if they had 
merely been setting off on an ordinary yachting-tour. 
In Julia : s mind at least, there was no idea of ever 
coming back again ; it was for her going into exile 
for ever as an act of expiation for the sins of one 
whose sins were dearer to her than the virtues of 
any other man would have been. 

Considering the time of year, they got their flat 
off their hands in a really marvellous manner, and 
they arranged to take so many of their belongings 
on board the Dauntless that it was fairly easy to dis- 
pose of the residue that was left. But apart from 


EXILE! 


this there was a great deal besides to get through. 
Julia needed an outfit suitable for a prolonged 
yachting tour and Stephen had to get the same. 
They had to lay in great stores of everything they 
were likely to want during the next year, paper and 
pens and ink and books and music enough as Stephen 
said with a laugh, to stock a shop. 

Then they had to say adieu to their already very 
large acquaintance, and Julia spent the whole of six 
afternoons driving about to bid good-bye to her most 
intimate acquaintances, thankful to find some of 
them out and drop a quiet P. P. C. at their doors — 
but to brace herself up to face the fire of questions 
put to her by those whom she was unlucky enough 
to find at home ; to go through the same catechism, 
to hand on the polite fiction that Stephen’s health 
was not of the best in England and Sir Fergus 
Tiffany had advised him, indeed ordered him, to 
leave England at once. So they had got rid of their 
flat and had bought a steam-yacht, the Dauntless, 
and in future if they found he was able to bear a 
London Season they would only hire for the time 
they were able to stop. Yes, it Was a deprivation to 
her for she liked England, and much more so for 
Stephen who liked England better than any other 
part of the world but, of course, his health was the 
first consideration and everything else must give 
way to that. 

Was the Dauntless a good size ? Oh ! yes, nearly 
four hundred tons ! Then were they going to take 
a large party out with them ? On which J ulia was 

19 


290 


MRS. BOB. 


obliged to confess that they were not going to take 
anybody but themselves ; and oh ! how her cheeks 
burnt, poor girl, as she reached that point and how 
she gasped when she got back into the blazing July 
sunshine and uttered a fervent thanksgiving that 
she had one less ordeal to undergo. 

But the hardest struggle of all which fell upon 
her was when the last night in London came, and 
she and Stephen had to go to a very smart dinner 
which Mr. and Mrs. Bob Markham gave in then- 
honour and to wish them Grod-speed. 

For Julia was convinced that what Stephen had 
been Bob Markham and his wife still were. She had 
been able to get no information out of Stephen on 
the subject, absolutely none, yet she had formed her 
own opinions and she kept to them firmly. Mrs. 
Bob, as soon as she heard the news came round to 
see Julia and had been all that was kind and tender 
and womanly, she had sat for a long time holding 
Julia’s little clay-cold hand in hers and she had cried 
softly when she heard the story of the something 
that was wrong with Stephen. 

“ My poor little sister,” she said — she had never 
gone so far as to call Julia by that name before — 
“ I am so grieved and sorry for you, dear. It falls 
hard upon you, darling,” and so she had gone on 
soothing and petting her until at last Julia had 
broken down and ciied her heart out on little Mrs. 
Bob’s gentle bosom. 

And then Bob had come in in his blustering 
breezy way and had tried to re-assure her by telling 


EXILE ! 


291 


her the doctors were a set of old women and Sir 
Fergus the biggest old duffer of the whole lot. And 
then he had clapped Stephen on the back and had 
told him that he ought to be ashamed of himself, a 
broad-shouldered stalwart fellow like him to be 
shamming ill like a schoolboy who hadn’t learned 
his lessons. 

And after they had gone Julia had turned round 
to her husband and asked him a question. 

“ Stevie,” she said, “ are they both shamming, or 
don’t they know anything ? ” 

“ Know T anything ! ” he cried looking at her in 
horror. ■“ Why of course not, not a word.” 

She saw enough of Mrs. Bob afterwards to be 
quite sure that he had spoken the truth and that 
she really did believe her brother’s health to be bad 
and, if he remained in England, his life in danger. 
And believing this, she had of course no choice but 
to go to the dinner which was given in their 
honour. 

“ It is perhaps,” said Mrs. Bob, when their guests 
began to arrive, “ rather presumptuous of us to give 
this dinner, as Mrs. Trafford might have wished to 
entertain them the last night. But we talked it 
over, Bob and I, and we found that Mrs. Trafford 
did not mind and that, in fact, having let her flat it 
would be most inconvenient for her to have a dinner 
however small, so we determined to do it.” 

Having come to this determination, Mrs. Bob had 
done her work thoroughly. Mrs. Trafford was there 
with Miss Theodosia; Marcus Orford and Madge 

19 * 


292 


MRS. BOB. 


were the next to arrive — and as Julia turned from 
them to see her sister and Anthony Staunton an- 
nounced and to see them followed by Lord and Lady 
Lucifer, she felt that the cup of her individual 
suffering was indeed full and that if any more of the 
people whose names had become marked in her own 
mind as being connected with the cause of her exile 
appeared, she should lose control over herself and 
commit some foolishness such as shrieking aloud. 
The others however who came afterwards were hap- 
pily one and all harmless people who had neither 
robbed others of their wealth nor yet been robbed 
themselves. Nevertheless that evening proved a 
terrible ordeal! Everybody felt that the occasion 
was a somewhat sad one and that it behoved them 
to be as gay and festive as possible by way of keep- 
ing up two hearts which they suspected were sad, 
little thinking that one of them had gone nigh 
almost to breaking. 

But at last it came to an end — their healths had 
been drunk and Stephen had got up in his chair 
and bowed saying — “ Thank you, very much,” and 
nothing more, so that part of the ceremony was got 
through far more easily than poor Julia had ex- 
pected, and very soon after that they began to say 
good night, good night, and good-bye. 

The first to leave were the Lucifers who were 
going on somewhere. “ Well good-bye, my dear 
Mrs. Stephen,” said Lady Lucifer taking Julia 
kindly in her arms. “ We are all very very sorry 
to part with you, and dear old Stephen is a dear old 


EXILE 1 


293 


friend of mine as you know. We shall often be 
thinking about you and wondering how you are 
getting on and how the poor chest is. Mind 1 
don’t believe there is anything the matter with him. 
I think Stephen is a complete fraud and that you 
look far more ill than he does. However, I hope 
you will both be back next season as if nothing had 
happened and whenever you do come back we will 
make Maimie give another dinner to wish you wel- 
come.” 

But Julia had nothing to say. She clung to 
Lady Lucifer for a minute or two and kissed her 
with white trembling lips, for a good many of the 
gay rattling words had gone deep down into the 
heart that was bursting with the weight of shame 
which knowledge had laid upon it. And then when 
the Lucifers had gone Miss Theodosia thought she 
too would be going. 

“ Good-bye, my dear,” she said — c< I dare say I 
shall never see you again, for my time is getting 
short and my poor dead and gone Lavinia was ten 
years younger than I. But always remember that 
the old woman’s good wishes went with you and her 
prayers will follow you. God bless you, my dear, 
and lessen your anxiety for your husband,” and 
then Miss Theodosia kissed her and set her free 
hurrying out of the room with the tears streaming 
down her cheeks. 

“ I should like to go,” said Julia to Stephen — 
“ I don’t see why you need all say good-bye to me 
to-night. I shall see you all in the morning. Do 


294 


MRS. BOB. 


let us go,” and then she hurriedly said good-night 
to them all and went off followed by her husband, 
who being perfectly well and having every intention 
of coming back to London before a year had gone 
by, was naturally only distressed at the effect all 
this would have on his wife, and so far as he was 
concerned, was rather amused than otherwise by 
the fuss which they one and all thought fit to make 
about their departure on a long pleasure trip, osten- 
sibly in search of health. 

“I am sure,” said Mrs. Bob to Mrs. Trafford 
when they had gone, 44 of one of t wo things. Either 
Stephen is much more seriously ill than he chooses 
to admit and that Julia knows it, or that Julia’s own 
state of health is such as may give us the gravest 
anxiety.” 

44 What do you mean ? ” cried Mrs. Trafford in 
alarm. 

44 Well, to be candid I don’t think that Julia is fit 
to go off on an indefinite yachting tour.” 

44 But why not ? ” 

44 Because they are taking no doctor with them.” 

44 Well ? ” 

44 Well, I think they will want one, and a nurse 
too before long.” 

44 You don’t surely m<§an — ” cried Mrs. Trafford. 

44 Well, I’m afraid I do,” returned Mrs. Bob 
drily. 

Thus prompted Mrs. Trafford drew Julia aside 
when they were all assembled on the platform at 
Waterloo from which she and Stephen were to start 


EXILE I 


295 




far Southampton, where they would join the yacht. 
“Julia, my darling,” she said anxiously, “tell me 
one thing before we part. You are looking very 
ill — is it your anxiety for Stephen which is making 
you look so, or is there any cause for your pale face 
and hollow eyes ? ” 

“No, Mother dear,” she answered. “I am per- 
fectly well — very anxious about Stephen, of course 
— but — but that is all.” 

“ You are quite sure ? ” 

“ Oh ! yes, perfectly sure. And Mother,” she said 
in a troubled voice — “ there is one thing I want to 
say to you alone — I am going away and it is possible 
that I may never come back again ” 

“ Oh ! my dear,” Mrs. Trafford cried. 

“ It is more than possible,” said Julia solemnly, 
“ that I may never come back, and besides that we 
never know what will happen. What I want to tell 
you is this — that whatever happens, whatever you 
hear, whatever people saji, will you always remem- 
ber that, although it almost broke my heart to leave 
you all, I yet went happily and of my own free 
will, that I was quite happy to go. You will 
remember ? ” 

“ You are keeping something back,” cried Mrs. 
Trafford. 

“No, don’t think that. Only you will do what 
I wish — you will remember the very last thing 
that I asked of you, won’t you ? ” Julia cried im- 
ploringly. 

“ Oh ! my dear ” 


296 


MRS. ROB. 


% 


“ No, don’t ask me to tell yon anything — only if 
a certain contingency should arise, you will re- 
member that I am perfectly happy with Stephen 
and that I love him more dearly to-day than I ever 
loved him before,” and then she flung her arms 
around her mother’s neck and burst into a passion 
of hard dry sobs. 

But only for a moment ! The indomitable will 
which she had inherited from her mother stood her 
in good stead. She wrenched herself free from the 
tender clasp of the loving arms and went back with 
a smile on her face to where the others were stand- 
ing together in a group. 

It was a supreme moment but she triumphed ! 
A word for each — a kiss — a last request to one, some 
trifling commission for another to execute, and then 
she got into the train and stood smiling at the 
window throwing a gay last word to each and all. 
And then the signal was given and the train began 
to move slowly out of the station carrying her, 
brave and smiling to the last, into her indefinite 
and undeserved exile, leaving her mother and Mrs. 
Bob standing hand in hand together 1 


THE END. 


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